I just played this (http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130726/log.50a44d70e4b09c3f1c235128.1374877971897.txt) really weird game:
(http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/7/7a/Procession.jpg) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/f/f5/Thief.jpg) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/d/dc/Golem.jpg) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/9/9d/Harem.jpg) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/6/6a/Hunting_Grounds.jpg)
(http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/6/67/Native_Village.jpg) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/f/f7/Develop.jpg) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/7/71/Menagerie.jpg) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/8/88/Steward.jpg) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/c/c2/Tunnel.jpg)
We both slimmed down to an engine pretty quickly, and it looked like the game would end soon, but he got a Thief and destroyed my economy. I started rebuilding my economy with Stewards and a Hunting Grounds (and some extra Native Villages), and I thought I'd be able to end it soon, but he got a crazy turn 21 which ran out the Duchies and gave him a lead. Since I only had 1 buy/turn with no Develops, I couldn't get more than 6 pts a turn and since he had a 6 point lead and I was P1 I spent quite a while buying Harems in the hope that he'd stall and I could get the last Province to win. Then the Harems got dangerously low (NVs and Duchies were gone), so Tunnels became my 2 point cards for a bit. Then suddenly, his engine discovered that it was out of action cards to procession, which left him with 2 dead turns which allowed me to get the last Province and win.
So, my question with this game is: He played his first Thief on his 12th turn. From then on, should the game went a lot slower. Did the game have to slow down this much, or did my poor play against the Thief cause the deceleration, or did we just get an outcome on the edge of the bell curve?