Gilded Crossbowman and Gilded Spearman are very effective when knights just keep flying into them.

I actually really like OOTD against French, getting Dark Age Spearman to contest the French gold mine early. French for the first like four minutes they want to get left the hell alone.

Even if the early Gilded Spearman didn't do the economic damage you wanted against French, at least you have a Spearman out already when the French start getting Royal Knights, so you already have the counter.

OOTD crossbows have six tiles of range and get an additional tile of range against archers, making them very strong against French arbalétriers.

French need the Veteran upgrade and Royal Bloodlines to get their Royal Knights to pseudo-Imperial levels just to have a chance against OOTD's Gilded Knights.