Since this is my favourite faction to play in MTW I thought I would give a rundown on how I use France to best affect......


Firstly I make sure to up the taxes to the highest in all towns in order to get as much money as possible. Then concentrate on buildings in the following order:

Walls, economic buildings, Religious buildings, stables including jousting arenas, other happiness buildings, Armour buildings then lastly siege and growth buildings.

1st Turn)

Diplomacy: After pumping all towns to maximum tax I like to send my princess towards Spain and Portugal to secure an alliance with both of them early to secure the southern border. Also building a diplomat in Paris to send towards the HRE/Italian/Papal States as well is a key. I like to make sure to secure all catholic nations as trade partners/allies ASAP. I do not bother with any orthodox/muslim factions as that is asking for trouble.

Military: It is important to take the Rebel settlements as soon as possible however I like to go for the towns before castles as their economic growth is very useful early. I start off by sending a spy into Dijon and sending the garrison just to the north straight down to lay siege. In order to minimise losses I go for the Wait and let them come to you option. The other town I go for is Renne bypassing Bordeaux (for now) and securing Rennes (the guild has always given me a mission to take this town worth 2500 gold anyways) however this time the rebel army is more cunning and will sally out but with the spear militias schitorium formation they can hold against their mailed knights quite well and you can use your knights to mop up their troops with ease.

5th Turn)

After these first few turns are over you get a few benefactors for your prince once can lead an army from Toulouse to take Bordeaux and usually by now Constance has been married off giving an extra general in Paris which I use to gather an army to siege Metz. Once again I am patient and siege the castles and wait for them to come to me. Metz will sally out on the 2nd turn anyway. After securing all of that you have plenty of money for mercs and troops in all towns keep everything reinforced as if all towns and castles have loads of troops then the catholic nations will not attack you. Once all towns are reinforced I go North to take Bruge. (The Danes normally beat me to Antwerp)

That is all I am going to write for now my strategy with Version 1.1 means that corsica/Sardinia gets swallowed by Sicily so you miss out but this should take you to where a crusade is likely and that would be the next best step.. It's your choice from here where you go as you will be the aggressor... Eventually it will be Milan who will break the peace if you leave it too long so that might be a good place to start.


Anyways hope my *First attempt* at a guide has helped someone