France

[c4stigator]

As France, you're pretty much surrounded by Catholic factions, and you wont be able to invade anyone without invoking the Pope's wrath. However, the HRE will usually get excommunicated, so use that as a chance to snatch some easy territory. To make this even easier, try and get a French pope and boost your pope-o-meter to the max, then call a crusade on Frankfurt and take it with a free army.

[Robespierre]

Can that be done? you can call a crusade on an xcommed catholic faction? cool
i love voulgiers, so i have been playing France again. that Constance is a winner. send her to seduce His Popefulness, offer an alliance, then call a crusade on Cordoba as soon as the core force is ready under the heir at Toulouse. thus you by-pass the Spaniards. then send them all off to Afica to play Beau Geste and make money. When war with the portugese ors paniards comes, as it surely will, you will have them surrounded and can put a quick stop to the fighting, thus doing away with all catholic opposition to the west.

[Zaleukos]

I've found that the inevitable European backstabs can be delayed substantially by not taking Dijon, Metz, and Bern. Bern and Metz are magnets for the HRE, and Dijon both for the HRE and Milan. If you reach it Antwerp is another magnet (for Danes, Scots, and sometimes English).

Bordeaux, Rennes, Bruges, and Zaragoza are safe though.

The surest way to get into a war with Milan or the Iberians is to grab Ajaccio.

And while I know that the game doesnt have historical ambitions it's a bit funny that the English almost never backstabs the French (medium campaign setting). That is UNLESS you take Caen, in which case they start landing senseless raiding parties near Bruges and Antwerp:p

[Robespierre]

yes. i have taken Bruges and Dijon and Metz, but i left Antwerpen and Bern for my rivals to break their armies on. the Hre were already excommunicado when they made their attack, so looting their property is the way to keep those build queues running smoothly. taking Antwerp would bring the whole North together as one against me, so the Hre can keep it till last. Frances' strategy in this game is thoroughly mediterranean (sp?),Tyrrhennian even( ut melius quidquid erit pati, seu pluris hiemes, seu ultimam quae nunc oppositis debilitat pumicibus mare Tyrrhenum.) Horace.but good control of the Milan sector depends on taking out a slice of the Hre territories as well.

[Nepereta]

France and princesses..

I have finally started playing france ( using mod Stainless Steel) after playing M2TW for ages and I have found you can trade Caen in exchange for a marriage alliance of that nice french princess I even got cash too anyone else try this in vanilla? That princess rocks I suppose she has potential of being an uber diplomat for a short while I am guessing marrying her inhouse will get various 'wife is cool' traits. On the subject of marriage I found grabbing a spainish (the barcelona faction) princess was pretty good as they where willing to pay me to marry her which was kinda odd ( perhaps its just the SS mod) or may be the fact she wasn't anything to special (just 3 hearts)?