This game needs a boost to its role play. The player doesnt have something to achieve other than “having coller brothers”.
This could change very easily if you let players choose a character to be your capitain. At first, this shouldn´t do much (unless you want to add more complexity to the game by adding a “kill the leader to rout enemies” strategy), maybe just a little morale boost.
The great advantage of having a capitain character would be unique unique ambitions linked to that character. Now, ambitions are not very engaging: they usually cover stuff you would do anyway (save money, find unique itens, defeat crisis).
What I propose is for character backgrounds to have a unique ambition attached to them. For example, if your capitain is:
1) Adventurous Noble, Disowned Noble, Bastard > can have a “press claim” ambition, where they use the company to become king or lord of a faction
2) Crusader, Flagellant, Monk > can have a “find the holy grail” ambition or “conquer “jerusalem like city”” from southern states ambition
3) Gravedigger, Graverobber, Gambler, Historian, Miner > can have a “find the ancient treasure” ambition, where you raid an acient tomb or something like this
4) Cultist > can have a “summon cuthulu like monster” ambition