I thought I'd put this game up on here because I think it shows how a 40+ player can see the angles better than a 30+ player (me):
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120717-075738-9c890f38.html I'm pretty sure I could have pulled this one out if I had reacted better, but I didn't see ahead to how long the game would stretch out. I was way ahead at turn 12, keeping the lead thru 22, but I couldn't end the game. lespeutere won, and thief was what turned it around for him. It's been said before here in this thread, but the really top players know when a normally crap card can be the key to victory.
cards in supply: Alchemist, Bank, City, Feast, Harem, Highway, Laboratory, Mint, Potion, Steward, and Thief
I went for a very straight-forward alchemist/lab/money strategy. Lespeutere started out similarly, but trashed nearly all his money with steward and mint. Then he bought two thieves. I had 4 provinces and a duchy by the time his thieves eradicated my economy. From there, he used mints to acquire 7 harems (robbing me of mine to end up with all of them), and then he had enough to beat me with 3 provinces to my 5.
I hope he won't mind if I post our chat log after the game:
10:57 flies: gg
10:57 lespeutere: gg
10:58 flies: interesting play there
10:58 flies: didn't see it comn
10:58 lespeutere: it was
10:58 flies:
10:58 lespeutere: I didn't know how to play this really
10:59 lespeutere: without +buy, alchemist is terrible, normally
10:59 flies: mm
10:59 flies: hadn't noticed that
10:59 flies: makes sense, since it takes a while to build the chain
10:59 lespeutere: yes
10:59 lespeutere: but then your small deck enabled my thiefs
11:00 lespeutere: although I got lucky, I guess
11:00 flies: luck plays a part in all games
11:00 lespeutere: + you put your alchemists back every turn
11:00 flies: yea
11:00 flies: i considered that
11:00 lespeutere: letting your treasures rest in your drawind pile
11:00 lespeutere: drawing
11:01 flies: i thought i'd be able to get the lead and hold it, but i didn't see how the harems would enable a long game
11:01 lespeutere: I feared you would be
11:01 lespeutere: but then there was a way to empty a 2nd pile AND gain VP
11:02 lespeutere: + you already had 4 prov clogging your deck