Haven't looked and don't plan to, right now I am looking for a way to fix the damn shield wall, faster troops are moving in first and dying because they get isolated. It may not even be the item references themselves, but other checks that are made, like average prices in towns and such, somewhere along there are instances staying alive.
It happens when you reach a distance away from the character. I would say this is related to performance, just like other games have rendering distance or lower resolution textures that are used for things that are further away.