My most untimely death was in my 2nd village in VV1. I was starting this one without the help option because I wanted to try and do it on my own.
A typhoon struck the island and washed away all the food. The berry bush was already depleated, and I was still a few points away from farming tech.
Unfortunately all my little villagers died of starvation before they could get in a crop.
This taught me to concentrate on farming and research before going on to building and other things.

Ok, how do I mark this as a spoiler in case some poor soul out there doesn't yet know or want to know about this stuff?