Quote Originally Posted by Jxrc
In Early a reasonable start is to do the following:

first turn take toulouse with whatever you need to defeat one ballista,one unit of spearmen and one of archers.
i do the same in the early game. i would like to add a intersting observation. after the conquest of toulouse province i put the taxes "very high" and got of coarse loyalist rebellions next two years (i remove the aragonese forces out of the province to get the rebelion). here comes intersting part - after crushing the second one, pope ALWAYS excommunicate french, leaving them without allies for a long time.