In times of war and conflict when the kings and lords play their games of thrones parties of knights shall charge about on raids and armies shall march through, both laying waste to the countryside as they go burning and pillaging. In their wake the survivors of said ransackings try to pick up the pieces and rebuild, but with no food stores and limited supplies they often turn to banditry, raiding those settlements that have escaped unscathed for food and provisions. In these times of troubles peasants often take the defense of their homes, friends and families into their own hands. They cobble together, buy, scrounge up, salvage and steel whatever arms and armor they can and practice fighting with them while setting up basic defenses around their village such as a stockade to keep out cavalry, fences to keep out infantry and watchtowers. The result is that you end up with each village having a force of guys (and some gals) outfitted like this. A home made padded vest, improvised metal torso armor, a plundered helmet, a crude but durable shield and a spear that take up their arms when the need arises. Such forces are not the best fighters by any means, but they are well motivated to defend their kin, kith and livelihoods against attackers. A suprising number of incautious knightly raiding parties have met their ends at the hands of village militias. The flipside of of this is that in prolonged conflicts foraging parties become larger and act more systematically.