Quote Originally Posted by Adrian II
I will give you the short answer. The French are the hidden gem in this game. Challenging from the start, but tremendously rewarding in the end. You will understand what I mean once you get to train those white Chivalric Knights in Toulouse.
Agree entirely. There was a time when I would have come up with the old recycled:

"but they're essentially the english, without billmen and longbows and the addition of Gendarmes in late!"

While that may be essentially true, what I do like about the French is the challenge of recapturing your territories from the English, while adding some HRE provinces to your lands, such as Lorraine, Burgundy and Provence. After that you are still in a precarious position and it is not uncommon to be at war with the Aragonese, Spaniards, English, HRE, Italians and a few of the muslim factions all at once. It then get's even more challenging once you get excommunicated and almost everyone is out to get you.

A similar challenges comes in the form of the Italians. Surrounded by potential foes, including the French, Papacy, HRE, Hungarians Sicilians and with the Byzantine Empire not to far away either.