Take Military Drill yourself. Put 40k+ troops in Burgundy, anihilate French at your leisure.
Works best if you get the Ireland mission first, then vassalize Scotland - France will typically protect Scotland, so you get into a war with them, and likely get Occupy Paris once you deal with the Scots.
Strategic opportunity cost is near zero - since there isn't really any strategic opportunities you miss out on while pursuing the French war. The overall cost is likely to be recovered easily from the rather rich Gallia region.
It's possible that you're *slightly* later with QftnW, but I doubt the difference is all that big, considering I regularly run into the ahead of time penalty even while pursuing the French war.
Works best if you get the Ireland mission first, then vassalize Scotland - France will typically protect Scotland, so you get into a war with them, and likely get Occupy Paris once you deal with the Scots.
Strategic opportunity cost is near zero - since there isn't really any strategic opportunities you miss out on while pursuing the French war. The overall cost is likely to be recovered easily from the rather rich Gallia region.
It's possible that you're *slightly* later with QftnW, but I doubt the difference is all that big, considering I regularly run into the ahead of time penalty even while pursuing the French war.