So just to bring you all up to speed, I have completed the game on Normal and have decided to skip Hard and go right to Lunatic based off of how easy normal was for me. I am new to Fire Emblem (this being my first game in the series) and am currently on the first real level where you start off with Fred, Lissa, Chrom, and MU. This level just seems to be the worst shit I've ever had to do (to be fair, I don't play a lot of turn based strats). So here is my question. If I am having this rough of a time now, is it basically just going to get worse from here or are the first couple of levels meant to be stupid hard? Thanks for the time, everyone.

The first half dozen levels basically revolves around letting Fred tank all the hits with a bronze weapon and the rest of the party pick up stragglers. Remember, Strength (or Mag) + weapon MT - defense (or Res) = damage dealt, so get used to counting numbers carefully.

It depends on how much you're willing to grind/rely on DLC. If you're just trying to play it straight, it's going to get worse before it gets better, as the maps get larger and it becomes harder and harder to limit the number of enemies attacking your guys at once. If you're grinding for levels, particularly if you have access to Golden Gaffe and EXPonential Growth, then the game will only be as hard as you let it be once you're past Chapter 4.

I've definitely been looking at pre-attack numbers. But I am getting some raw shit luck.