And you are one of those to whom I ask, How exactly do you win on this Diamond Miner? Every event and every daily and every quest for the past year has been close to impossible to compete in or to complete if a player is not so far into the game they've nothing else to do with their fp's and diamonds. ... So..... ???????????? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have 2 cities, one in HMA and one in LMA. They are both a bit over a year old, I started them last January during last year's Forge Bowl Event. During the Spring Event, I had pushed them into their current ages when I started to realize I had weak cities. That's when I hit the forum and started studying many of the great guides available. I threw both cities into park to focus on building and leveling GBs, building up my daily FP supply, and maximizing RQs.
Between GBs, Special Buildings, and approx. 150 RQs per day, my HMA city on W produces 200 FPs, 950 Medals, and 800 current age Goods daily (on average) with no goods buildings. My LMA city on R, with 2 RQ slots and completing over 200 RQs daily, produces approx. 215 FPs, 1,900 Medals, and over 1,000 current age Goods every day.
In both cities, I'm able to easily complete every Event, finishing the bulk quests in just a few days. I complete GE 4 every week, typically on Wed, always by Friday, with a mix of fighting and negotiating. I complete the Daily Challenge daily, finding only the 4 and 8 hour Production tasks challenging (tediously irritating, really).
I find Settlements to be tedious as well, a grinding, grindy, grind as
@Algona so aptly put it. I don't however, find them particularly challenging. I'm following a similar strategy as most have described, immediately build out to Axes, spend the first productions on the first 2 expansions, working my way through the tasks. The only nut I've yet to fully crack is Diplomacy, I don't like having to delete roads and such to build Runestones or Totems to unlock, then delete them all to rebuild roads and build the new structures. I finished my first Settlement well within the first deadline with about 4 days to spare, my current Settlement is on track to complete well within the initial deadline as well.
I can only think it's my overall understanding of the game, a strong city with resources to spare, and decent city design skills. TBH, not having any particular secret, it's hard for me to fathom some of the challenges others are reporting.