I do build at E 2, unless you typed that in reverse by accident.  I've done both at E 2 and E 3 on different tries.  Both end up blocking off the north side, but I prefer E 2 if I can get it built fast enough because it frees up E 3 to be farmland or something.

B 5 does block off the first entrance, but goblins will still pour in at A 7, 8, and 9, and then work north.  As long as you can build more walls to stop them, then I imagine it would work fine and give you even more room to work with.  I just can't seem to get my walls up fast enough, so a single wall at C 5 seals the entire thing off for me.  I lose several tiles of potential farmland, but at least I don't die, hehe.

My strategy is still a work in progress, so I'm sure people have some better ways of handling defense.  I do get a bit closed in with my current method, so any improvements that lead to more land could be good.  I don't get any people starving to death, but in the late game I struggle to hold my Eastern border (the only place the goblins can get in) while still having enough people to produce everything I need produced.  Somewhere along the way I need to focus more on houses so I can raise my population.

Trying hard, but failing

I know th feeling. I'm still asking for a map that's like 16 by 16, but if that happened, Rocky waters would probably have to ply his games over again because his scores wouldn't be fair if he was using the old system instead of the new.

I actually am able to survive the mission now. I'll say that the thing that canged the entire game was the starter I chose. The problem is getting the points. Even once the goblins were driven back and I had more squares to build on, I couldn't build up enough ponits and it was a struggle keeping my people fed. Next time I think I will try and keep the population a bit lower, and get rangers in on the action a bit faster. I had 5 knights before I started making rangers and so after having 5 knights and 5 rangers that was half my settlement used to defend me and I only had like 11 people doing actually important stuff like making food, which slowed me down, and forced me to build tutor houses. Rangers are a lot better for fighting goblins than knights are anyway. I got to tick like 8400, and then everybody suddenly began starving. I'm not sure why, I guess hunting trips were taking too long or something. So I was forced to tap into my valuable wine barrels. Wine is super valuable in this mission because if you can build it up without having to use a lot of it it's an easy source of thousands of ponits. I got 2 tomes created also. The food production seems to be where the big bucks are though, and so I have to work on that.

i don't believe in key's scores.
he's numbers are exactly equal. And what about if i open the mission, prease spacebar, then release it, save and send? that will remind the same score. Sorry guys i can't just believe that score in places 3 to 10. Roky waters, i believe him. Even though, my score is prety low because i don't have any strategies, and the game when ever i start, my mission turns into a mess. About roky waters, hi's or she's a legend.
i will never optain a superscore like that.

Hi Aprone,
As for food, i start with hunting and fishing, then switch to vegetables. I have tried many times, but do not manage to make other types of food, such as bread or meat from animal farms, as it involves quite a number of buildings. I also cannot find a way to expand my population, because goblins have populated the land with only 1 to 3 land tiles left, with the help of my defensive units. I think my plan is not really good until now.

Survived my third mission.  Modified my tactics again, but the result seems similar.  I'm not sure yet if my strategy is optimal, but would anyone want me to post a few tips?

I've found that building a wall at:
n-2
m-5
j-3
i-4
k-6

gives me a nice little area to have fun in. It then becomes a trick of what to build when.
I found a bug though:
When you close the tannery, no one will bring leather from it to the monastery. The monk will make leather, but that is it. Closing a building just keeps peasants from bringing supplies to the building, not taking items away...
and I use that a lot, especially now I'm needing to destroy buildings.

Aprone has asked for some hints from folks who have scored a success or two.  Dark offered his wisdom on playing the hunter, so here's my own hot tips, hopefully not too explicit, on how to play the lumberjack:

Firstly, select your tree!  Pick a good looking mature specimin.  If your preference is conifer, there's a sweet spot just below the bushy part, near the base of the trunk.  With one hand on your saw, and one on the trunk, gently guide your tool to this spot. 

At this point, I should point out, that if it's a solo job, both hands on your tool is probably the way to go.  It's preferable of course to have a partner, and finding a rhythm here is the key.  After around 20 strokes your tool should have nicely penetrated deep into the body of the trunk and you can both let rip.  You can ignore a few squeeks, but if the tool is a tight fit, then a bit of oil in the right place works a treat. 

A few short strokes towards the end is advisable.  At the point of climax it's not necessary, indeed it's bad practice,  to withdraw your tool, just enjoy the moment.

It can be exhilarating, and it can be exhausting, but both of you should be able to walk away aftterwards, otherwise you've done something wrong!  nobody should be crushed by the experience!.

When it's all over, you can say something like "we make a good team!", but yelping with joy and doing a high-5 is probably bad form.

Afterwards, it's a good idea to clean and inspect your tool.  If you've got a good partner then keep them, otherwise you can swap around until you find someone compatible. 

Above all, practice makes perfect - a rusty tool is no good to anyone!

Some folks tell me the lumberjack's preferred tool is his trusty chopper, but some folks are just crude.

Ok, some serious tips, seems to be the sporting thing to do. Warning, spoilers and spilt beans. 

Quick answer:  The right strategy for this map is to build walls, as many as it takes.  Wall yourself in and forget about soldiers until after all your walls are built. 

The strategy stuff: Each map seems to require one of 3 strategies, soldiers, walls, or population.  This map is small so growing your population is a luxury you don't have time for.  Building in the middle of the map and relying on soldiers is again not quick enough.  Building some walls and trying to stem the goblin tide is worth a try but the soldiers will drain your economy and expanding your territory becomes very slow with few workers.  So walls is the way to go and fortunately it's possible.  The downside is that it takes time and resources but this is not as much downside as soldiers.  Other maps will of course differ.

The next question is how many walls and where to put them.  You have to choose between going for safety and speed or going for more territory in order to have more room to build on.  My 3 games have had 3 different wall placements and I'm going to try a fourth.  If you find a clear cut answer where to put the walls, then please let me know.

Some tips on this bit:  Planning your land grab is advisable and the order you put up the walls is also very important.

How much land do I need?  The correct answer is - as much as you have time in the game to build on. 

In reality, land is scarce, having too much safe land is probably not going to bother you at this point.  It's very likely land will be your limiting factor and your choice will boil down to what you have room to build. 

In the unlikely event you end up with expansive lands, time will be your limiting factor and your choice will boil down to what order to put up your buildings. 

What order should I put up my buildings?  Ah that's tactics and not covered in this post about strategy.  Perhaps I'll do a post on some tactics later on.

Is there a shortcut?  Yes.  Don't bother building anything, just choose smuggled goods as your starter and send everyone out fishing.  Just before you starve to death, save your game and submit it.

Sorry about that bug.  The game is supposed to let you save when the ticks run out on challenge.  One option is to load up the saved game "autosave".  Castaways automatically saves your game every so often, using that file name.  If you have played a new game since then, the autosave will have been overwritten.

For myself, the game does stop and let me save once I reach 10000 ticks, so I haven't been able to fix that bug yet.  Once I can reproduce it, I'll squash it.

More and more contest submissions are coming in.  Excellent!