The French

[Taedius]

So I am of the opinion.. Blitz England, keep the peace with HRE, and quickly consolidate before striking for Glory in any number of directions.

This is true. Through trial and error, I have noticed that the English King William II always hops from Wessex to Normandie in the first turn. Always. Attack, and kill him. The English provinces now rebel, you can pick them at leisure by bribe or conquest. But quickly; they will reappear. But the English ship in the channel is gone.

The HRE will have problems elsewhere, so the eastern border will see a steady, but watchfull peace. Very watchfull. Never take your eyes off it. But your main threat is Aragon. You will have to eliminate them. Having done so, the Spanish will be grumpy. It is now a question of time before you must defend yourself against swarms of Jinetes. I myself hate that, so, rather than wait, I attack first. All of a sudden, I control the Iron Line of Iberia.

Next are the Almoravids. And so on, and on. In my last French campaign, I did all of this, and completed all GA points except the Edessa crusade. Yup, including the Krak. It's possible. But like I said; trial and error.

[Peasant Phill]

I have a different approach then the more usual English blitz. I try to avoid to war with England until I have ships protecting my coast or enough units in the coastprovinces. Also if you blitz, you wont be able to have a lot of alliances. With a kingdom with a lot of borders this could become a problem.

Trying to avoid wars in the first few years means that I have to be quick to annex all my bordering rebel held lands. I tend to go for Flanders first, Anjou next and then Brittany. Don't wait to long to attack Brittany as England won't wait long either. Also always keep an eye out for emmisarries that want to bribe certain rebels.

Starting in early, the French troop producing capabilities are crap. Only Ile-de-France can produce units. But it can produce all units from early (except Norman and feudal knights).
You're first units produced there should be royal knights as they'll be historical heroes. Making them royal knights means that they'll never get outdated (when retrained). Both are 4 star generals with good side stats. Give one Ile-de-France (for the star) and the other one Flanders.

Tech up you're provinces so that they can pump out units ASAP you can afford it. For now it doesn't matter which (strength in numbers) but later on designate certain provinces certain troop types and tech up especially for that. You can easily conqeour the rebel lands by making them flee to their keeps and starving them out. But if you want to you can train your king and/or heirs a bit by assaulting.