Ideas and suggestions.

Let me put it more clearly. Why is quickly capturing the max-crypt on the first day, losing a couple of units in the process due to a clear understanding of the strategy, NOT considered an exploit, while capturing the factory IS considered an exploit? Is it because there's 5000 gold involved in one, and troops in the other? Are troops always more important than the economy? Okay, then.

Of course, you need to know the strategy for both. But the difference is that the crypt is just a quick step; it rarely takes more than a minute and a half. Capturing the factory with harpies, on the other hand, takes about 20 minutes of the same actions. All that's needed for such a capture is attention and concentration; you don't need to think at all. It's tedious to do and tedious to watch.