Game won't stay open/connected

[Hawksmoor]

The current "game crashing" thread seems to be largely ignored and I have no idea if this is futile or not. What's the answer S8? My game will not stay connected when launched. The news feed pops up and then the game closes. I can go through this maybe 15 or 20 times in a row stupidly hitting the game icon before I finally "connect", and then it's stable until the next time I open the game. Launch, rinse, repeat. It's beyond frustrating. I've tried all the suggested "fixes" repeatedly: I force close all running background apps, power off iPad, deleted apps to free up space, uninstall and reinstall game, deleted photos to free up space, cleared my "cache" etc. After the most recent App Store update for the game that was for "bug fixes" and "performance improvements" it seems to have gotten worse. How's that for irony. Am I being punished for having too many "animations"? I've been loyal to this game pretty much from day one. I'm a daily player and have (seemingly stupidly) spent real money on this game. Again I ask, what is the answer? Do I take my lumps and say Sayonara FFS? What's the point if I can't even play? Or is there a real solution to this problem that someone would care to enlighten me with.
FYI - my ID is Karzee70. Thank you.

[[S8] Elsa]

If you are playing on an old device, your device may not meet the minimal requirements for our games and may have performance issues. As you level up, add more items and animations to your board, the game requires more resources from the device. If the device is older or has a lack of resources, it'll cause the game performance to decline.

You may be able to improve game performance by closing down background apps to free up more resources.

If you still need assistance with your game, please email support@storm8.com and our support team can look into your account further.