Holy fuck am I retarded or is the one capcha with the squared with dots in them damn near impossible?

If it's your first time playing I'd recommend picking Maniac (Hard 2). But at some point you should try Lunatic mode. I feel like the game really benefits from the stronger enemies, changes to enemy positions, 1-2 range dragons, removal of the warp staff, etc. but it might be frustrating to play if you don't know what to expect from future maps.

After you beat Lunatic mode you unlock Lunatic Reverse, in which enemies get to strike first even when you initiate combat. It's worth a playthrough for the challenge and the novelty, but I think the game is overall better on Lunatic mode.

>>729209093
For a first playthrough I'd personally recommend playing only Hard. Specifically with a female Kris.
Sounds autistic but merging the Male sets (only done after a Hard+ playthrough) together makes future playthroughs much more enjoyable and lets you get more out of it. Plus while Maniac is a decent difficulty, if you're only coming in from FE7 or FE8, let alone raw to the series (very unlikely), it has a much nicer curve to it.

>>729209668
I don't like using the merged class sets (or the prep screen stat boosters) on lunatic mode. For me they're part of the lunatic+ experience because they are necessarily unlocked along with lunatic+, but if I'm playing lunatic mode I will erase all save data and start fresh.
And if you do a H3 playthrough without the expanded male class set you can build a team under those conditions, then get the opportunity to build a new team for H4. Otherwise you might end up using the same units each time. E.g. without the expanded class set you might choose between Ogma and Roger as your horseman instead of using Frey.