Mercenaries?

[LoneTophat]

I just noticed that there aren't any mercenaries in-game. I've really been enjoying the game but this strikes me as odd, I loved beefing up my armies with mercenaries in RTW/MTW.

And before any of the history freaks go flaming:
15th to 18th centuries
The Saika mercenary group[41] of the Kii Province, Japan, played a significant role during the Siege of Ishiyama Hongan-ji that took place between August 1570 to August 1580. The Saikashuu were famed for the support of Ikkō Buddhist sect movements and greatly impeded the advance of Oda Nobunaga's forces. Ninja were peasant farmers who learnt the art of war to combat the daimyo's samurai. They were hired out by many as mercenaries to perform capture, infiltration and retrieval, and, most famously, assassinations. Ninjas possibly originated around the 14th century, but were not widely known or used till the 15th century and carried on being hired till the mid 18th century.

Pulled from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercenary

[Basileos Leandros I]

It's just a single mercenary group. The mercenaries were masterless ronin or wandering samurais/samurai learners called shugyosha, but they were never employed in large numbers so adding them into the game was more or less meaningless.

[Ketsan]

I've recurited some random ronin actually so they are there in the game. You can't train them, a pop up, pops up asking if you want to hire them or risk having them trash your lands. Once you've recruited them they form their own little ronin unit which I thought was odd since they're not actually ronin anymore but hey.