by seisyll
Are we talking about a two-player game or a four-player game or what here?Because pastures can be rough in the two-player game. Not enough tiles appear during that game - your animal type may not come up enough to fill a region. You also tend to steal each other's animals in two-player because you can focus on attacking each other directly, whereas it's difficult to know who to go after in a three- or four-player game. In a four-player game, pastures can be decimating, of course - comprising at least a fourth of your score.
My wife is very good at this and she tends to focus entirely on chaining buildings. She also values highly the knowledge tile that allows you to have duplicate buildings. I agree that this tile might be the most overpowered tile in the game. It enables two things: first, it allows you to overload on the buildings which grant extra tiles; second, it knocks up the power level of the knowledge tiles that give bonuses for those buildings. This game is all about loosening your restrictions until you have complete flexibility.
She also finishes small areas early and these early grab for points seem to alway pay off in the end.
I tend to value mines highly, as well as mine modifier tiles. These, in combination with the tile that allows you to buy any tile on the board with silverlings, gives you the chance to scoop up extra tiles to slow your opponents down. However, I think I need to start building quicker rather than investing so heavily in the late game.