Another idea, concerning recruiting deserters.
Everyone knows at least one movie where the villain says to the captured good guys, "There's room for two on my crew. The rest of you are dead. Who's interested?" etc. Prevalent in pirate yarns. Heck, the Joker even did in the Dark Knight, more or less.
Anyway, the idea is that when offering deserters to join you for "money and protection", if you don't have enough space in your party or money to hire them all, it would be great if you could just take the ones you could accommodate (as it is with mercs in taverns, when you can't take them all) and then proceed to annihilate the others.
"I can take 14 of you."
(14 A4 Bogsveigr join your party)
"What about the rest of us?"
"You'll feed the crows."
(PBOD!)
And, while we're at it, I'll just reiterate the old cries that taking deserters should tank your honor, not your renown.
And BTW, since I don't say it enough - thank you Devs for all you do. This mod pack really is this game's destiny. As far as I'm concerned they released an unfinished game, and you guys have taken it all the way.