I started playing Banished again after taking a break for a few years. This time I watched a couple of videos, which helped a lot by confirming some of my previous actions and introducing some refinements.

I used map seed 20140218, large, hard, no disasters. I name my town Perdido (lost).
The starting position is great: close to the trade river, open space for a town, close to a couple of forest nodes, lots of stone and iron.

First, I build a road from the wagon to a soon-to-be-built stockpile (I place some markets and stop construction for planning a grid layout - road between wagon and market). Then I clear some resources and build a road to my first stone house (which will keep everyone warm through the Winter). Then I extend the road to my first forest node (N) and build a stockpile for resources (and place a forester next to it -stopped). I build a gatherer (food) and place a hunter (stopped) and storage barn (stopped) near them.

Everyone lives.

Next I build a woodcutter next to the future market and stockpile. I saw that on a video and OMG it's a game-changer. I construct all my processing buildings next to the market now. I rely on clearing the resources in my town for logs for firewood. Now I can survive with no worries.

Next I build another stone house, blacksmith, then the stopped forest node (hunter, storage barn, forester), fisher, tailor. I build a stone house every Winter after I get my starting bannies housed. I usually build a school by about year 4.

I place the trading post next to the market, and place farms, orchards, and pastures.
At some point the food starts getting low so I build another forest node (NE): stockpile, gatherer, storage barn, hunter, forester.

Great start with a foundation for growth.