'Fastest' ways to win?

Hi,

I'm feeling impatient now, because I've just played my 4th or 5th map and about to do my first (bronze) seal. I'd paused the game, went out, and found I'd lost when I came back. (I suspect one of my 4 cats unpaused it. They like stepping on my keyboard).

Strangely I find it takes like ~2+ hours (?) to win each map. I'm thinking I must be doing something slowly. So I'm looking for 'faster' ways to win to progress towards higher difficulties, unlock faster, etc. -- the thought of having to redo ~8+ hours of work just to get to where I was is demotivating.

I usually end up focusing on opening crates with tools and completing orders. I haven't really tried winning through resolve, or ever (I think) earned any significant points for that, so I don't know if that's a faster way to win. I tend to recruit a lot of people and open a lot of glades to try to gather a lot of resources to make tools and open crates and satisfy tasks. Obviously that means higher hostility and relatively lower resolve, and mostly try to make it through storms without losing more than a couple people.

Thoughts on faster ways to win or generally progress?