Always start the game with at least 10 woodcutter huts. 20 is about right. Getting greedy early by buying wood is usually not the right move. I'd advise buying no more than 250 wood (thats 500 gold).

By the time you make more hovels, granary, orchards, market, stockpile extended, make a quarry/iron mine, your woodcutters will be done their first load shortly.

Getting hops early is crucial. The +8 from Ale consumption is such an easy tax generator. Keeping your peasants drunk only costs wood (which is basically free), and 100 gold per Inn. Get 2 hop farms minimum; they will sustain a population of 80 or so.

The Pig got it right, crossbowmen are the most cost effective early game defence. They destroy every other ranged unit.
Get Fletchers making crossbows as early as possible, they are a great income source. I usually get 12 once my woodcutters return with their first load of wood.
Tanners are not as important, but if you can spare the oasis land, build a dairy farm, placing the tanneries as close as possible to it.
Make as many weapons as you can.
Bonus points if you are close to an iron deposit, as you can build a Blacksmiths.
Later on you can get stables and make knights, they are really good for defence and sniping buildings.

Religion can be good, if you plan on playing a longer game with a high population.
If you are going for a quick win, don't bother.

I like to stay neutral. Making gardens makes your peasants into slackers, but your army beefier. And making gallows costs in army durability, giving you extra resources.

Making them takes space, time, and gold. Generally speaking, this is a waste of time. The only exception is if maybe you are behind. It's usually better to squeeze out a few more troops, or build more walls. You will have to accept the negative effects, or delete them quickly before/after the siege.

Ok, so... I have mixed emotions about this. Using cheats takes away from the game experience, but it can also add its own value. These aren't really cheats, it's just exploiting the game mechanics.
Use to your own satisfaction.

1. Build an orchard. Select the building. Pause the game. Double click the "Sleep" Button. Unpause the game and wait.
What you have just done is make the game think that it needs another worker to go to the building. It only works well with orchards, hop and wheat , chapels, iron mines (if far away, it'll help), and pitch mines. It can be done until the game runs out of peasants (don't worry about it).

2. You can also lock enemies in their base. If you are having a hard time with a level, you can just build an ox tether directly in front (touching) of their stone gate. This works on everyone, but wont work on AIs that already have build spike traps in front of their stone gate.