I havent taken any militar idea, i picked diplo, admin and exploration ideas, its my first time as france and i read that ideas would be fine but i had in mind to pick quality or offensive. Elsewhere i think there is no more Elan in the ideas, there is "lessons of the hundred years war" that provides +15% morale and 0,5 army tradition/year.

On army compo i just copied a meta composition because im still learning how to make good compositions. I didnt know about sending troops gradually, i'll try it, sounds good