Yet, the entire game is practically counter to you running a small party, from the moment you start the game.
With how garrisons work, there's no 'stationing' troops there since you're eating into the garrison growth/cap itself doing so (no separate group).
There's no 'middle' size enemies, it's your looters right to your 80+ AI enemies to your 500+ armies. It's missing that 'deserters' we had in WB, no group of 50+ taiga bandits, good luck chasing those Khuzait ones, and sea raiders/desert bandits also are only in specific 'spawn' areas; there's a huge swath of the map where there's none.
The only middle pack are caravans, but it's like attacking civilians.