Festivals 4 times per day, in 20-25 cities is literally slot per day. First off learn to play, then try the mechanic and then, if you are not able to be on top... idk, 15? at least? ask if we are using gold.
The answer is easy, gold olympics to open first 10-15 slots, then just festivals in each city, 3-4 times per day. We open slot per day just with festivals, now, add all the culture attacking-deffending. Is not that difficult to understand... you just have to know how the game mechanics works.
Remember we are top 1 attacker alliance, top 2 deff alliance, and top 1 fighters. Top 15 fighters are our players, top 15 attackers are our players... its not all about gold but knowking how this game works.