It's hard to rise from a penniless peasant to a decent banner lord in Mount & Blade 2, and things don't really get any easier when you can manage your own castle and a few villages. Building up a huge, gleaming army means that roaming bandits won't threaten you personally, but they can't be everywhere at once, and your village can fall prey to bandits while you're off on some far-flung war.

That is why the Buy Patrols mod for Bannerlord is a great idea. With this mod, you can hire up to three anti-burglar patrols for each village you own. You pay them a daily allowance and they will search restlessly around your village, preemptively clashing with bandit gangs that are after the valuable resources your village produces, such as butter, grain, and fish.

Patrols come in three sizes, ranging from small anti-bandit squads of about 20 men to the largest squads of about 60 men. However, the larger the patrol, the slower it moves across the map, so if you notice bandits fleeing unharmed, you may want to use a smaller patrol.

Organizing a patrol costs several thousand denars initially, but if you already run a castle and several villages, you probably have more money than you know how to spend. If you can prevent your town's tasty butter from falling into the wrong hands, it's well worth the initial investment.