Perhaps this is a feature of the mod. Can not recruit Mercenaries nor Ships if dock is not built to support production. My questions are 3 fold: If I can recruit a general with a bad A$$ capital ship but I can not recruit a lowly basic ship then there is something wrong with that logically speaking. Being unable to recruit Mercenaries when you are so limited to production upgrades based on technology is like playing a sub standard game to me in many ways. If I wanted 4 units fighting half way through the game then I reboot Shogun 2. right?
BTW: Love your mod! I love that I have to disable all my other 20 mods to play it! Says alot about the class of mod it is.