So I was thinking about how I liked the whole process of building your house, and how it reminded me a little of how you had to jump through a bunch of hoops in Morrowind to get your fortress from one of the great houses. Then I got to thinking about all the stuff you can add on in Hearthfire, and it reminded me of how the fortresses in Morrowind were really like small towns, with residents and everything. Then I remembered that you also got some way of defending your estate (Telvanni got animiculi, Redoran got militia and Hlaalu got a bodyguard/mercenary). Then I remembered the DLC in Oblivion, how Battlehorn was guarded by knights, how the Thieves Den had pirates, and how even Frostcrag had imps and a means to make a permanent Atronach which could be used as a follower or, in my case, used as a guard for the main hall. My point is that in all these cases, you had some manner of guards for your awesome new house, but aside from the odd cliff racer they never really had anything to defend against. Here we are now in Hearthfire, and one of the things they added in this DLC is random attacks on your manor, but nobody to defend it other than yourself and maybe your steward.

TLDR: Previous games gave you guards for your house, but enemies never actually attacked your house. In Hearthfire enemies will now attack your house, but you don't have any guards to help defend.

I really hate to nitpick about his, but it seems like such a face-palm moment to me. Now, if I'm wrong and there is a way to get guards in Hearthfire that I missed, I will acknowledge that I stuck my foot in my mouth and slink away.

I agree,there should have been some sort of guard(s) to help defend you're house.I was a bit let down by this but the DLC is something I enjoy.

This is something that has been mentioned in threads complaining about the attacks. I support the idea that you should be able to hire guards since most of the little settlements throughout Skyrim - farms, wood mills, etc. - have at least one guard patrolling the area.
AFAIK, for now, all you can do is:
- once you get a housecarl, make sure NOT to make them your steward and instead assign a different follower to this role;
- marry someone who is a follower
This way you "boost" the number of people who are there to defend the house from 1 to 3. And when you visit your house accompanied by yet another follower, that makes 5 characters who are there to defend the mansion.

Good thinking Sangresed,But yeah we should be able to hire guards or mercs for protection.

I would not have considered those past homes as a mere house, you need guards for something that size, not that they needed to do anything anyway. You do not have enough buildings to house guards in a residential house in the wilds. And since the player fighting off the locals is an integral part of the gameplay, there is already plenty of help available.

Maybe the ability to hire 3 bodyguards? That would be awesome

100% agree.

That was oblivion, But it would be cool knowing that you can sleep without getting up.




~BGN

I agree guards would be helpfull, extra building to house them would be nice but when not completly needed, when you get the guards for riverwood the sleep outside the village around a campfire something like this could be done for your house