I started a second Sun Jian campaign, having figured out basic mechanics from the test run. This time I ignored Jiang Ling early on and went south, and returned the Imperial Seal when Liu Biao contacted me. I did take Jiang Ling later.
I think a lot of which generals show up seems preset? Both my own campaigns and a Sun Jian stream I saw had Lu Fan show up very early. Guo Jia seems to keep popping up for Wu as well.
I'm in a coalition with Yuan Shu, whose been reliable-ish this time--the AI is probably less likely to break coalition than a non-aggression pact since a coalition gives him more protection. He pulled me into a war with Liu Biao that proved profitable; I was able to capture the toolmaker near Xiangyang, and in the peace treaty I offered him a piece of quality armour (from the armour-maker minor settlement) in exchange for a Jade mine near Nanyang. Then I stole the armor back with my spy, Su Fei.
Su Fei was caught, but Liu Biao released him. I'm not positive he isn't a double agent, and haven't decided what to do. If anything goes wrong I'll toss him out.
Almost immediately after this, Cao Cao declared war, possibly because he wanted my new Jade mine. Yuan Shu--being Yuan Shu--refused to help until I paid him. Once I did I asked him to attack Yingchuan to distract Cao Cao while I have a full stack of Guo Jia, Zhou Tai, and a (randomly created, I think) Sentinel attack Chen. I'll have to crush some yellow turbans first but I don't anticipate problems.
Sun Jian, Huang Gai, and Lu Su have conquered a significant portion of the south and are about to grab two abandoned spice traders. We made contact with the Shi clan. I hope to vassalize them once my rank is high enough. They have the Peaceful AI type so I am not anticipating problems.
Zhou Yu joined me in 196 in an event, though I've read people mentioning those events don't always fire (seems like a lot of people have trouble getting Cao Cao's main generals). I think he, Cheng Pu, and Sun Ce will form the core of my third army when I create it but that's a while off.
I'm undecided on weather Sun Jian should conquer more in the south or disband and re-build his army up north to fight Cao Cao, then once I have more money let Sun Ce and Zhou Yu polish off some more southern commandaries. I'm leaning towards letting them do it so they can get some rank increases.