AP or AN ?

same, i'm with TW guild

1. at the moment no, what i heard from others only season got purple horse. the only we can get now is white or green.
2. crafting, depends only luck, equip is not a big matter, what you need in your equipment is to have +troop control limit
3. resolve daily quest, donate resources to your city (you need to have guild)

leveling your troops is a matter.

you unlock your troop type from honor which you can earn from daily quest, thru battle (if not mistaken), donate resource to city (part of daily quest, even you have completed that daily quest, you still can keep donate, if you got resource, but it will limit 20 donation per week)
normally we use season troops more than the troops we unlock in the army book.
to unlock Season Troops you need to press F5, then you need to resolve those mission, only you can unlock. to totally on the season troops, you need to resolve all mission.

those mission are like,
1. kill how many troops.
2. win how many match with certain troops
3. destroy siege machine.
4. etc.