defense of villages?

[kigmatzomat]

IMC, there are three main types of threats to the average village: monsters, raiders, and armies.

the wilderness will begin very closely to the village and its farm lands and chances of running into large creatures might happen. The village itself is usually fortified with a ditch or wall and watch. Dogs or geese might be used in the defence

Animals and similar monsters will generally shy away from loud noises; the risk of facing an angry herd or multiple foes is just too great. Only packs will attack aware groups and then only of known foes unless starving.
Most people will react similarly so dogs, geese, certain kinds of birds, etc are great inexpensive security systems.

Radiers almost offer less of a threat to commoners. The tactic used most by all but the feircest is simply to not resist. Commoners are typically seen as treasure generators and although they'll be robbed and abused, they'll usually be left alive and maybe even with some of their equipment and stores if they don't resist, so that they can be there to rob and abuse next year.

Another defense against raiders is to keep nothing in undefendended cities. The local noble/cleric/etc's fortified structure houses all the seed, valuable tools not in use (i.e. plow), draft animals, and most of the winter stores. Most villages would need little more than 2-3 weeks worth of supplies. Raiding becomes pretty pointless, though the supply wagons become prime targets, though one under the lord's control for bettter defense.

In the case of armies, they simply run away. If the local lord has ample fortifications, they can sometimes seek refuge there, but unless the area is of good alignment, such fortifications usually aren't built or supplied to handle lots of refuges and their property and animals. ANother, possibly better, solution is to run deeper into one's own country and become refuges.

It's amazing how few people classify "run away" as a valid defense. It's probably the second most common defense in the animal kingdom (stealth/camoflage being the first IMO). If you are using the "dirt farmer" peasants then most villages won't take much time to recover. They may have an intermediate year where most of them live in the barn they build but the community as a whole will be back to more or less normal within 2 years.

For the "peasants are the equivalent of the modern middle class" games with lots of furniture, metal utensils, an ox in every barn, etc there will be more problems from raiders because there are too many vaulables to carry. Run away becomes harder to justify. By the same token, it is hard to explain why these people have so much stuff if their community is attacked every month.