40 man live tournament strategy

Ok so i play my live tournament twice a week and i have one coming up tonight...

Its a league and the winner of the league after 15 weeks, wins a ps3 or whatever...

I came 2nd last season by 5 points (or ONE appearance without even making the final table) lol

So what im trying to say is ive been doing this for a while and i know what im doing, but, i want to try something different tonight...

Its a 40 man tournament, blinds starting out at 100 /200 going up every 15 minutes and we start with about 18 000 chips

I finish at the final table every week, without fail, but, i sometimes get there slightly short stack, or extremely HUGE stacked, and i cant quite work out what im doing differently...

I start the tournament very aggressive, playing most hands while the blinds are low, firing continuation bets and quite a few bluffs, which works out well.. when the blinds get to around 1000 /2000 im usually on about 35 000 or so, and there are about 20 players left, by the time we hit 3000 /6000 we are about 14 left... .

How would you play this tournament, start out aggressive and then tighten up, or start out tight and losen up?
I feel the first option is the best for tournament poker..

Let me know your thoughts

thanks

generally i play tight then loosen up, but this is mainly a table image decision, plus i find people are more willing to gamble early in tournies when it wont cost them all their chips

i tend to wait till the blinds are level 5 or so, then start shooting blind steals and making a lot of moves with mediocre hands

early on if it doesnt have 2 cards above 10 i muck unless it's a pocket pair in which case i limp and hope to hit then chuck, i've had some successful with this technique, hope it helps ya

last nights tourny didnt go well

my first hand of the night i got suited AJ and raised up.. got 2 callers

flop came A J 8

check check, i raise to the size of the pot

One fold and a reraise, i put him on AK

Next card is a 5

I check, he raises i reraise he goes all in, i call

he has pocket 8s

i busted out...
lol

thats rough...yesterday i started a 45 man sng and got pocket As in the first hand I raise and get reraised so I push...the guy has pocket 7s and hit a set..sometimes lucks just not on our side hahah