England - Need some castle/town position advice

[Marku]

since ill likely be doing many crusade/france invasions, could i make london and southampton castles and turn nottingham/wales into towns?. it means i can produce armies closer together and ship them off faster. i realise this might cut my trade/income quite abit.

edit: flanders & denmark are my allies and ive been careful about who i trade with. i dont want to help scotland by trading with them. etc.

another edit: how much does the pope have to like you now, to accept your crusade proposal?

[Caspand]

I belive you need 8 or 9 to launch crusades, to make sure he accepts.

I would leave London a town, you already have Caen down there, and should be able to take Angers without too much off a fight. Also a bit further down soutn is Bordeaux, giving you 3 castles in the area, should be more then enough.

You could also always just bribe Flanders to attack france from the east making them draw troops to their eastern border and then launch a attack on Angers + Bordeaux the same turn.

That should cripple them quite a bit in their northern region.