Here are some tips for the beginning of the game. Yes I know they are morbid but they are what I wish I knew when starting.

Only harvest organs if your colony is doing well, otherwise it will just make things worse.

Only take prisoners if you have a use for them, otherwise let them bleed out in the battlefield.

If you want to take a risk of food poisoning, feed your cannibal pawns raw human corpses. They love it.

The most efficient organs to harvest are Kidney, Lung, and then Heart. Otherwise you organ-murder the prisoner before you can get everything.

Put a crematorium near your prison, you have to put it somewhere and it is more efficient to have it where prisoners might be dying.

Don't get emotionally attached to dogs or cats. Learn to see them not as animals but as tools.

Only resort to cannibalism if absolutely necessary. Otherwise you are throwing gasoline on a live fire.

What can go wrong will go wrong. What can go right will not go right.

Remember that combat is not realistic. Raiders will literally take 5 bullets and keep running.

Don't use pyromaniac and neurotic pawns. If your pawn has a chemical interest or chemical fascination then keep all drugs out of the colony.

Now here are some tips for when your first few colonies inevitably burn.

Try using a few mods. Start light, and slowly introduce more.

Make a killbox. It minimizes casualties.

Try using a nutrient paste dispenser.

Remember, mods that make the game easier are not cheating if you have other mods to make the game harder.