Some strategies that expert players could have used in Hidden Cup 3

Stone wall across the upper lake in the Cup map.

Wall in enemy towers on four sides to trap villagers, before battering them down. See game 4 of the finals, at 21:40 game time. Can't ungarrison between diagonal walls.

Berry rush! Which is getting loom and going aggressive at around 12 villagers, then exploiting the opponent's non-optimal balance of food and wood and the time it takes for them to research loom to do damage. This can include stealing berries, trapping enemy villagers and killing them, or trapping villagers into a woodline in preparation for a tower later on.

Putting villagers in a ram that attacks a castle and walling the ram to protect it as it is attacking. Make sure to eject the villagers before the ram reaches the base of the castle, so the castle is still targetting the ram. Can be combined with:

Building a siege workshop next to an enemy castle using villagers standing at its base.

Tricky: when a dark-age rush is attacking a wall, have villagers build walls out of their line of sight to trap them. More difficult with increased line of sight for scouts and infantry in feudal age.

Using a villager to build walls in the middle of fire galley fights on amphibious terrain, which block enemy fire galley projectiles.

Fire galley micro: saving a weak fire galley by moving another fire galley forward into the line of fire, instead of moving the weak fire galley away. Can also be done with fishing ships for an early military advantage.

Using walls within your base to segment it off when threatened with raids by fast units, allowing more of your economy to remain untouched.

Making a refuge for your ships on maps like Cup, of walls with a gate, that they can go into when you're temporarily losing water against fire galleys. Fishing ships can stay there until you can make more fire galleys. (Long term: castle-age fire ships do bonus damage against buildings, which is negated by the building armor on stone walls or from Masonry, but palisade walls don't benefit from Masonry so aren't as beneficial at this stage.)

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Some strategies that we sometimes see, that should be used more:

When attacking a tower with villagers, put walls around those villagers to protect them. Works best when you have enough villagers on a tile to prevent opponent from ungarrisoning in that direction.

Wall in an opponent, including starting walls around enemy production buildings that form part of a wall. Can optionally leave a space to trap the units if the rally point is set in the wrong direction. Forces an opponent to make holes in their wall, through which you can enter, or run a long way around.

Making a tower or town center on the outside of a forest/woodline, instead of the inner edge that faces your original base, to protect lumberjacks from crossbowmen.

Using walls to protect ranged units during a push. Example: hand cannons that are threatened by fully upgraded Eagle warriors. Even palisade walls can greatly help when placed with multiple villagers. Stone walls allow much smaller forces to remain in a risky position, such as letting your main army go off somewhere while your siege stays in place, protected by walls.

Building a tower in an enemy base when you have a temporary military advantage but expect to lose it, either because enemy armies are approaching in a team game or because it's going to become a mangonel war and your mangonel is likely to get surprised while attacking a building like a town center. Protecting the tower with stone walls, making a stone gate for units to leave from while keeping the tower safe, and leaving a space for a villager to exit to repair while being safe for melee are all options. You can make a tower difficult to destroy even if your main army leaves. Walls protect from melee units, ranged units can garrison to shoot mangonels, and melee units can deal with siege. (Just don't garrison Chu Ko Nus, as even in DE the garrisoned damage calculation uses the secondary arrow with 3 damage.)

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Some strategies that people know about, but find too troublesome to use frequently:

Walling in docks on maps with amphibious terrain like Cup.

Patrolling a fast unit on no-attack stance to dodge ballistics in ranged battles.

Distracting a castle's fire with one unit to allow other units, like petards, to safely approach while an opponent is looking elsewhere.