I too have found myself ignoring silver scrolls just to win the land as quickly as possible. They ripped off a lot of the quests from simple puzzles (the curling game, the enemy creature puzzle) ; I was disappointed in them.
Just found myself short of so had to play again for tribute 3100 first try then B*ll*cks 4250 and I was trying to milk it, for the extra tribute for each new high score.
Like all the mini games
You get the high score but only just... Get your tribute.
Next time try to beat your high score by as little as posible .....more tribute.
If you were realy skilled there is 20 new highscores between 3050 and 4050.
Most are like me above need to milk the scores then get a best when its not wanted.
No, I mean how do you get a high score? Should you zap as many skeletons as possible, regardless of whether or not you hit villagers as well, or do you need to be careful not to hit villagers, even if it means letting some of the skeletons get through?
All I do is go for it and try not to hit too many villagers thats when I can be bothered with the quest.
I had problems with the original CI version as well.