Useless or redundant units?

[Saxon]

The cheap monkey archers,the Markata, mass very nicely. Line them up against lightly protected troops and the volume of fire adds up. This can be useful for a quick start if you have milita in the provices next to your capital. Sure, anything can kill milita, but can they do it as cheaply?

Against heavily protected troops, the spell Destruction is very avalible for this nation and very effective. Rust Mist is not as quick, but lasts longer, so spamming the two in unison turn Helheim into light infantry, no matter what the blessing. The short bows also reduce your friendly fire, if you are using Bandar infantry with their protection.

And, as Nerfix said, Flaming Arrows is a lovely spell for this nation, though you probably have to get it via your Pretender. Wind Guide is also nice, but Flaming Arrows is better in my opinon.

Placement of this units is important, as they can run ahead if you are not careful. They are not powerful and need to be used as part of a larger strategy, but they are not totally useless.

[curtadams]

Light/medium cavalry *with lances* does indeed have its uses, at least in SP. Hold and attack works well if you micromanage them so that they charge into the enemy rather than the other way around. You can do this against the computer but not reliably against another player. The souped-up Barbarian Kings medium and heavy cavalry (they have very high stats for their price) can compose a pretty nice army. However, the bows are almost irrelevant. Basically they just let you nick the opposing army a bit while you wait for the infantry to separate from the archers so you can charge them affordably. I've never tried the chariot archers but I assume they'd be similar. Without lances, though, cavalry archers are useless. You pay twice the price for a unit that's easier to hit with arrows.

[Nerfix]

I really like the LA Tien barb cavalry. It's like a composite bowman, a Knight and an imperial swordsman rolled into one.

[Sandman]

One thing about light cav which has always irked me is the (occasional) lack of a hoof attack. Yes, they're not always warhorses, but light cav needs every break it can get.