Well, this game does seem to borrow from (or at least remind me of) many classic games including Pirates! I recall there being some motivation to getting through your voyages and dividing the plunder as quick as possible because morale would constantly be going down, only temporarily spiking when some victory landed a pile of booty in your lap. The longer you were out, and the smaller the gold per man ratio the faster morale would tend to go down.
Assuming we're playing freebooters, not landed nobility, that mechanism would work wonders for adding a bit more urgency to our questing. Coupled with a high score/career summary at some end point (player killed or retired or, perhaps, you could even set an arbitrary time limit) you'd have some goal, at least, to play towards.
To the extent morale was made a central consideration then where you got your men from and the quality of your men could all play into the gameflow. Say lowered base morale for "forced" labor (prisoners pressed into service or "drafted" peasantry/refugees of a friendly faction). Lower caste units should have lower morale to start with and the party might take additional hits where casualties are concerned.