Has anyone else notice that bandits aren't upgrading as often?

[Apocal]

Something I noticed in my early playthroughs was that late game bandit parties would be substantially higher-tier than early game ones. Early game bandits were typically (estimating) 70-80% tier 2, another 10-20% tier 3 and the remainder, if any, would be tier 4. But late game bandits, especially steppe bandits, would be more like 60-100% tier 4.

That doesn't seem to be the case in 1.4.1 anymore. At least not to my notice, but I have not been keeping track.

Is it the much larger villager parties killing or driving them off? Or did TW nerf the bandit parties' ability to stack upgraded units together, except in large groups?

 

[COOMER]

100% knew this was going to be what it was and clicked anyway.
Some bandit units were nerfed, aswell as their weapons.
They even had a malus for archers at night, your troops wouldn't shoot at a certain distance because they "couldn't see", while some bandit archers could somehow bypass this, giving the perception they were overpowered.