I'm not really sure what to say to this, um...I like to complain about the game as much as anyone, but this seems to be a player error.  Keep playing the game, try different things, and you will gain a better understanding of the game.  Simply, I just think you don't know the game well enough to play well.  Good luck.

Your sov doesn't need to be at home for babies to be made... as long as your sov is married they can go anywhere and still will pop out those babies somehow.

As for food, use the green thumb sov ability and also look into the farming related tech in the civics tree, use these and pop out a few babies who inherit your green thumb and then maximise your food output from cities using the civic techs and you should be able to make more than four cities. Also for food try and recruit farmer heroes and research into improved houseing (so max pop = less houses = less food used )

 Hiya, welcome to EWoM. Bes thing I can say is read through all the diferent "help I'm dying / I don't understand / usefull tips & hints threads"  when you ahve a chance.  While your at it you'll see plenty of people's talkiing about bug's n' stuff. Cest la vie.

heres a few observations from what you did metioned, no clue if it will help but I hope so.

 I never leave my Sov in a city early to mid game, and she seems to "plop" out babies now and then just fine galavanting through the country side spilling blood and looting other kingdoms goody huts. So you shouldn't really be forced to leave your SoV at home.

 There are technologies that when researched increase your food porduction capabilities by giving you bonus' + new food structures for your cities. Also there are enchantment spells (the spell book needs to be purchased in character geration) that gives + to food. Lastly there is a trait "GrennThumb" from character creation that gives your faction more food. In both games so far I have not had a male child born yet, so I'm not sure if your children can inherit that food bonus trait.

 You can make caravans and send them to your cities to build a road between cities. Then once the road is complete you can disband that caravan and make another to send to another city for another road link or to a more profitable city for increased trade. Roads drastically shorten travel time.

 Your Sov & hero's can buy +movement items, more are unlocked as you research certain techs.

 Your units can be given +movement items & gear in the unit design thingy, this will increase how much they cost to build, and the buildtime but it will make certain units much faster. (Great for Elite units who you expect to be tough enough to survive battles)

 I never really seem to produce a large standing army of low grade troops early in game. Instead I rely on the city lvl up choice "Select Random Gaurdian Unit" for certain troops that can be rewarded. (my favorites low lvl rewards are Thugs & Young Ogres)

 And as gmot said, the Horse resource  seems to be rare. As well as the Warg resource (for empire factions) The 2 games I've run so far on 1.11 both seem to have both Horses & Wargs but in niether game were they near my 1st city. I had to fight to get to the ones I needed after exploring.

 As for exploring the entire map. It takes me a good long while to fully explore a large map with max factions, and thats wth 10+ heros all agressively exploring. So maybe you need to make it bigger if you find your map to small. More than a few times I've had heros running from wandering dragons a long ways away from my ZoC... good times. Also more challenging opponents and world difilculty settings make exploration more perilous & bloody.

 Good luck Skyrar667.

 Oh, forgot to mention there are spells as well that increase movement speed. In the mobility spell book you purchase in character gen. Now where's your 1st born... thats the price of our 'help'. Muahahaha... ah crap, Lord Xia is going to kidnap his 1st born..

 And most definately, read up on those tthreads for everyones tips & things. You'll find alot of your questions allready answered, etc. Again, have fun.

 there are also demons... hmmn...    yummy crispy demons, some of them taste like bacon.