I do agree with using resources to build economy. I actually would do that. However, even that takes me time since so many things are happening at once and i can only focus on one thing at a time. I find it takes me around 10 minutes to get the desired amount of villagers on a quest including caravans. There was one quest where if i had not had a coop partner, i would have lost because before i got the desired villagers, they were attacking. the good news is i had the resources. the bad news is no units. if i focused on the units, i would not had the resources. i tried marion as babylon solo and almost lost. ended up having to take a risk at the end and send all my units to the final fortress. i do hate the timed quests unless its optional.