Run through with Kong Rong. A few strange and funny things

[Shag]

So on my playthrough with Kong Rong, even though I got married very early in the game I went completely childless until his death at 71. Is this normal? Is Kong Rong sterile?
Secondly in my game Cao Cao had a hard time keeping his friends close. In the same turn both his wife and Sima Yi left him and I snatched them up.
I was incredible friends the entire game with Liu Bei, but I can't seem to get him to confederate. I've gotten his resistance down to single digits but I can't figure out how to make him do it.
And lastly anyone else get this just continual pile on around Luoyang? It must have changed hands 6 times and there are never less then 6 armies around it. Its just a giant dogpile.

[Xenrek]

kids definetly seem to be something that dont happen a lot; but then this is likely in some small form a blessing, considering how expensive it can be to try and manage a large court, having a dozen kids could kill you longterm.

maybe it needs a MTTH buff for the first 2 or so, then drastically reduced chance afterwards? ive had games where i never had a kid, and then one where the wife popped out 2-3 in a few years.

though i suppose it makes some sense in-universe, not gonna have a lot of time to get with the wife when your off being a superhero.

[Thalfang]

In my Kong Rong campaign I married as soon as possible I ended up with two sons when he was age 60+ and he hasn't died yet. Definitely some RNG and possibly differences for specific characters skewing up and down.

[Master]

i didnt have offspring as well playing as Kong Rong. It was fated to be so. He did live a long life till 74 tho. in that era being alive over 55 counts as blessing. I had another general died at 56 naturally. i guess CA did their homework.

[shawnreed343]

Regarding the children- two factors can prevent children from happening that I've noticed. One is if the wife is too old to be of child-bearing age. Not sure the exact stats on this, but it seems to not much happen past 40. The other is if the husband and wife don't like each other. In my game I married Kong Rong to someone older than him, discovered they weren't having children, divorced and re-married, and boom- four children in four years.

Cao-Cao also had a hard time keeping friends in my game. I joined a confederation with Liu Bei almost immediately (not the military version, the shared war-goals version), played friendly with Cao-Cao, who joined into the alliance. Took one directorate out west- the farm got taken by AI (I forget if it was Yellow Turbans or someone else) - Cao-Cao then promptly took it from the AI. Cao-Cao then later left the confederation, and despite multiple requests to rejoin, never was allowed back in.

Is Luoyang the city on the Yellow River west of Kong Rong's lands, north of Cao-Cao? If so, yes. Looot of activity along the Yellow River mostly the whole game. It's all cool if you stay south of the river, but oh boy set foot on the north side and there's trouble. XD

Another interesting tip I learned for Kong Rong: there's a window where you're earning good money each turn and have established your initial lands, where you can sail down along the coast to the south. There are a bunch of abandoned lands down there- costs either 8k or 4k to nab them depending on if they're a city or resource. Further inland there are a bunch of relatively weakly defended Han provinces, which there's a window of opportunity to gobble up before Sun Jian moves off the river to nab them all. If Sun Jian notices, you'll probably get into a land-grab race, so work fast.