First, I am concerned about the 3 to 4 coureurs on wood in the Discovery Age. For a fast colonial advance, this is not advised until you are aging up. Food is key; you need it to make coureurs and to advance. Wood should not be a priority at this point in my opinion, as the most useful things to fend off a rush are available in the Colonial age, not the Discovery age.

Secondly, mortars are not available until the industrial age. This makes destroying an enemy town a bit more difficult in the fortress age, and in my opinion, a defensive boom should reach for the fourth age anyway to utilize this expensive yet devastating unit. I think that a major offensive should wait until the timing is pefect and your economy is strong, but i'm all for applying constant pressure in the fortress age too.

Also, I have been wondering what the ideal number of coureurs would be (at some point you have to stop making them). For this strat, how many would you make?

Currasier + skirm works just as well and falconets are fairly expensive...

Also I know this is disputable, but IMHO if you want to go to fortress, put like 4 guys (max) on wood while you transitioning to t2 (still build market) and have rest on food and gold, and use the policitician card for 500 food, this way you can still make a much better t3 time and prevent a possible rush much faster, and still make 1 outpost (all you need, gold next to tc, and 1 outpost for hunting).

Also, sine coureurs work 20% faster, the max number is 80, so therefore there hsould be nothing holding you back from booming to max pop, you may have 20-30% weaker military, but you'll be able to get to the industrial age and imperial age faster, and in the imperial age, the upgrades improve everything you have by 50%, and that is a huge huge difference. Also with a better economy you can produce currasier non stop from 2-3 stables which surprisingly, will take all 80 vils to do, and will still have you short on resources if you are constantly losing army

your strat needs some work though.

age 1

All villies on food. no exceptions.
build 1 house.
send the 3 villie card.
should have around 12-14 villies by 3 min mark when you hti the button to advance.
Important=choose the 500 wood option on advancement.

transition.

3 villies to gold.
4 to wood.
rest on food.

age 2

suck up that 500 wood asap.
drop 2 houses, barracks and market.
send 6 xbow.
create villies non stop adding to gold initially.
when you close on 1k gold reallocate more workers to food to hit 1200.
with spare wood drop 1 tower, build 1 more house.
make spare troops if you expect a fast rush. if not age fast and choose the 7 skirms option for age 3.

transition

reallocate off gold some to wood and food if needed. now is when your gonna start booming and adding defenses. build stable asap.

age 3

send tc card first.
keep creating villies steady.
if you havent, do market upgrades.
make 5 curriassers for raiding or defense.
make a few falconets when you can.
build more towers and send fort.
have your farms and plantations mixed in with your fort, tcs and towers.
walling key spots on certain maps is very good.
get 2 full farms going in age 3.
lots of villies on mining.
advance to age 4.

age 4.

if you have made it to this point realtively unscathed as french you are going to be in a good position.
have at least 3 full farms and plantations in age 4.
do hand cav upgrade in arsenal.
upgrade curiassers and falconets.
hit max pop with around 80-90 villies, cuiriassers, falconets and 2 mortars.
go and wreak havoc lol.
hit age 5 if you need to and do more upgrades. if not, then youve already won.

mili strats.
someone said it is better to use skirms then falconets. I dont think so but to each their own. both are effective.
However, there are a few reasons why i prefer falconets.
1. if you choose to go on offense in age 3 with heavy cav and falconets, falconets are alot better at takign down buildings like towers. french cav dont get bonuses to buildings im aware of like some others. skirms are poor against builings.
2. age 3 muskets arent that great but will still hurt your cav. with skirms you have to do some microing to be really effective against heavy inf. however, 3-6 falconets will pound a good group of muskets without microing. your cav is then only need to protect the seige from other cav or charging enemy seige.
3. if they have alot of skirms then falconets own them too and they are really toast.
4. if they go hand cav then you heavy cav is gonna be better and can put a hurting on their cav. also, 4 falconets will do some decent dmg to light cav before they close to them. alot more then skirms running away from hussars with curriasers chasing them are gonna do.

either way, imo, falconets are the way to go. keeping a few muskets with them is not a bad idea but you dont need alot.

Osheal

And I found a card that can make 2 upgrades in church.
Is it needed to call out Young Guard is 2nd age?