No reason to recruit to full strength for fighting monsters and undead. At least that was my philosophy as a Lord in Fronen. I maintained a reasonable sized unit and saved my gold for other things. With people to fight I am leading about double the CS.
I know, but look at that! Fronen's constant CS rise is insane.
I predict for this age: the royal beating of all opportunists who thought they'd have the upper hand by ganging up and declaring first.