I went in completely blind and I'm finishing the first Egyptian settlement tomorrow with 6 days remaining, using all different units with no diamonds spent. For context I'm someone who only maybe once or twice didn't get the best reward in the viking settlements. It felt slower than the other settlements but despite being frustrated at the start, in the end it wasn't too difficult. They somewhat successfully nerfed the strat of deleting all your roads and building single square decorations for diplomacy which I have used in both the viking and Japanese settlements and I'm actually giving them praise for that. Now that the roads cost settlement currency I kept those roads safer than my military units. Instead you just have to delete goods buildings to get the diplomacy needed down for the next unlock before rebuilding new goods buildings. I made it more difficult for myself by using auto battle with all the unattached units on day 1, otherwise I might have gotten a better start and finished a day or two earlier.
All in all it feels slower than the other settlements but it is quite enjoyable... Although the last quest feels a bit weird as you tear apart your city to build multiple pyramids as if to symbolize the end of this settlement