BiffMan Posted March 30, 2020 Share Posted March 30, 2020 In playing Utopia with my daughter recently, I was reminded of the speed play we used to do BITD. While we did enjoy a good old-fashioned 50 turns/120 seconds game of trying to screw each other over and get negative population, we didn't always want to spend 100 minutes playing, so we started doing incredibly short games. We mostly played quick 10 minute games of either 20 turns/30 seconds or 15 turns/40 seconds, usually in "peace" mode. I think we settled on 15/40 as the best balance since 20/30 was a little hectic and 15/40 still gave you a decent shot at scoring 100 by the end. Anyone else play this way? It goes by awfully fast and it was fun to try to set high scores since early decisions and build patterns really matter. With my daughter, we seem to be scoring in the 800-1100 range, with her on the lower end because she has this fascination with actually planting crops... ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intelligentleman Posted March 30, 2020 Share Posted March 30, 2020 (edited) I was hooked on this one a couple months ago and I ended up liking short rounds but lots of them. I even got to a point where I could do a decent job controlling both islands myself! Oh and I always plant crops! Edited March 30, 2020 by Intelligentleman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1980gamer Posted March 30, 2020 Share Posted March 30, 2020 Yes, short rounds... Get the revenue... Crops and Fishing Ships! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intelligentleman Posted March 30, 2020 Share Posted March 30, 2020 18 minutes ago, 1980gamer said: Yes, short rounds... Get the revenue... Crops and Fishing Ships! Yes... Because after you spend all your money, that's the only way to get revenue while you're waiting for the round to end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BiffMan Posted March 30, 2020 Author Share Posted March 30, 2020 Definitely need to keep fishing. With short rounds, fishing (especially double fishing) is really make-or-break on both income and score. Crops = more people = bad Fishing fleet = same people = good ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intelligentleman Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 1 hour ago, BiffMan said: Definitely need to keep fishing. With short rounds, fishing (especially double fishing) is really make-or-break on both income and score. Crops = more people = bad Fishing fleet = same people = good ? What.... I never realized crops had a down side! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BiffMan Posted March 31, 2020 Author Share Posted March 31, 2020 1 hour ago, Intelligentleman said: What.... I never realized crops had a down side! Each crop adds +.3% to the birth rate, each fishing boat adds 0%. Both have the same effect on food score. Granted, crops are considerably cheaper... ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1980gamer Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 location of crops is also important! Got to catch the rain! Factories I believe lowers population. But I haven't looked at the manual in almost 40 years LOL. Never grabbed a hospital until very late in a game. Again, population, real estate and cost. 75 if I remember correctly. Never really used rebels. But would sometimes grab a pt boat to protect fishing boats / sink boats. My best friend and I would play this often BINTD, Rainy days especially. Interesting, We preferred short rounds. We only played 1 quarter of NFL. 1 half of soccer. Cannot think of any other games we played truncated? Also, I ALWAYS like the right controller over the left. Maybe because of MLB? With Utopia, I didn't care which island I had. I had a layout pattern for both. But I remember reading one island had a bias/advantage. I don't remember which was better? Didn't really care at the time, cannot find anyone to play against these days! I think back on "stand by me", the final line. Didn't mean a lot to me at 12. But now... Stephan King nailed it! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IntyFanMatt Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 Utopia is awesome, one of the best games for the system without a doubt. My son, who is 11, loves it too and we play it together occasionally. He always takes the right island and winds up beating me almost every time. I think the bias definitely leans to the right island, but I don't mind. We enjoy this one a ton. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zendocon Posted April 1, 2020 Share Posted April 1, 2020 I always found fishing to be boring. 30 seconds was a lot more fun, emphasizing the "Sim" aspect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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