I had already suggested in another topic (Suggestion: New Units and Mechanics to Classic Civs - January 2024) that the French could have more unique units, specially infantry. Even in history records, the French army knew that it lacked good infantry, so after the hundred years wars, apart from their crossbowmen, they created special bodies of infantry:
- Swiss pikemen, as mercenaries in the Italian Wars.
- Scottish Guard, the french Medieval Royal Guard.
- Swiss Hundred, another french Medieval Royal Guard.
The Swiss pikemen could hire them by mercenary house, or by the Guild Landmark, and the other two could be created in the Castle (Similar to JoanDArc’s unique units). Well, at least those are my ideas, about their stats, and let the devs handle that.
As a curious fact, and somewhat funny, is that the same historical French tried to “create a unique unit” of Archer. It was going to be called “French-archer”, but it did not work out, since the corps dedicated to this unit did not practice enough and could not meet the demand, in addition to never having a decisive victory for this unit. It’s quite fascinating stuff.