My main strategy right now would be send 4 scouts in opposite directions to reveal as much of the map as I can, aswell as retrieve the free treasures around the map. You are at the will of an RNG spawn, so sometimes you can get lucky and major expansion is unnecessary. I also like to use lakes, mountains, forests as defensive barriers because at some point in early game you need to stop expanding, and begin building walls for the first hoard on day 11.
Also there's no shame in an insta quit, like, if there are absolute 0 trees in the general vicinity, or there's a village of undead very close I just reroll for a new map. Those two scenarios leave very little room for success.