Batard, baguette, boule, etc. are just shapes. vfem, next time spray your loaf very well with a spray bottle of water immediately before baking and see what you think of the difference.
I don't spray the oven, I put a small skillet on the floor of the oven and let it preheat with the oven, and right when I put the bread in pour a cup of water into the hot skillet to generate steam.
Also, consider a preferment. I did for a long time but ultimately decided it was not worth doing for me. What you could do is divide your water and flour in half, mix one half the night before with just a pinch of yeast and give it a quick knead and let sit on the counter overnight. The next morning, cut that hunk of dough up into thumb size pieces and mix and knead into the rest of the flour, water, salt and yeast.
The King Arthur recipe is the same concept but they just use more of the water and less of the flour for the preferment.
As long as you keep your hydration level at 67-68%, for the final dough, you can't hardly go wrong. I use a 2/3s ratio myself to keep it simple. For every 3 ounces of flour I use 2 ounces of water.