Gladius/Units

These units seem to be useless for a speedrun:

• Mongrels - Extremely weak, despite having a high initiative. Secutors are a much better choice if lights need to be used.
• Beasts - There are strategies for using wolves or bears, but they are either rather slow, and/or require multiple of the same unit. Plains Cats may need more looking into though. Scarabs and Scorpions require completing a long, very difficult league and almost certainly costs too much time, especially being so late in the game. One disadvantage for beasts in general though, is that unlike other units that equip weapons, you can't equip beasts with high-level weapons that give them much greater damage than intended. Nonetheless, doing The Wyrd league in Mordare requires non-human units, so beasts may be useful for exactly one league.
• Mongrel Shaman - Weakest arcane class by far. Useless even in non-speedrun gameplay. Channelers are infinitely superior. The only time you could use them is in The Wyrd league in Mordare, which requires non-human units. Even here though, it might be better to use wolves and/or bears in addition to Iaar rather than a Mongrel Shaman.
• Berzerkers - They are only powerful when you use Rage, but you then lose control of them, and while they usually make decent moves, it's too risky to be worth using in a speedrun. Without Rage, they are pitifully weak. You can apparently regain control while maintaining the Rage bonuses with the Centurions Reprimand skill, but they still probably aren't as useful as other classes in any situation.
• Legionnaires - They aren't too bad of a unit, but your main heroes, along with Murmillos, are much better medium units.

These units are probably essential to speedrunning:

• Centurions - Very powerful, though many of them don't have combo attacks when you recruit them. The Executioner's Sword, which has a chance of killing an enemy with each hit. Combo attacks basically guarantee a kill when it's equipped. One can normally be found in Imperial shops after beating the Southern Expanse championship.
• Gungnirs/Peltasts - The Long Throws are extremely effective on everything except Undead Summoners/Legionnaires and Murmillos. Peltasts are probably better, since their long throws don't take up as many skill points to use. Plus, the shapeshifting abilities of Gungnirs aren't useful if everything goes your way, which should happen in a speedrun. But in Ursula's playthrough, Gungnirs are your only option for the beginning.
• Secutors - Their use in the beginning comes from Surprise Attack from behind, since most units don't acquire Awareness until later in the game. When in Imperia, you should buy the Harpe in Caltha's shop, and buy the critical damage + accessory from an accessory shop. This will make your critical hits do ridiculous amounts of damage. They can be as powerful as regular mediums and heavies, but have much higher initiative.
• Channelers - Equipping them with an Asaya staff and a Talisman accessory quadruples their magic damage, making one hit kills at range rather frequent when combo attacks are used. The Asaya is a pro-level weapon, so it can't be used in Imperia, but the Talisman has no requirement, you just have to be lucky enough to find one in an accessory shop. An Asaya can be found at least sometimes in Belfort after traveling back to Imperia, although it could probably be found in other shops, including perhaps Caltha where you can get one just before leaving for the Windward Steppes. Unfortunately, the Asaya is Air Affinity which makes it useless against Dervishes, so other units will still be necessary in some battles.
• Yetis - Iaar is the only heavy recruit in Nordagh, making him amazing for the beginning of the game. He will quickly lose basically all of his usefulness once you progress through Imperia, when you can get Centurions, but he is still essential in Nordagh. Unfortunately, you cannot use the temporary recruit glitch to get the other Yeti.

These units may be useful for a speedrun, but need more looking into:

• Archers - Eiji is very effective, but having multiple archers could be useful. One archer you can recruit in the Windward Steppes is several levels higher than your school, but can still be recruited. They aren't nearly as powerful as Gungnirs or Peltasts, but they have much more range.
• Minotaurs - They are extraordinarily powerful and useful in most early battles, especially since they are immune to many of the light warriors' advantages. But to do the sidequest to unlock one, you have to complete Imperia Untamed and Mongrel Siege leagues in Cro Beska. This will give you enough cups to unlock the tournament, but it is much faster to do Quarrel in the Mawl since only one battle is necessary to complete the league. In addition, completing the sidequest may give you a useless Satyr rather than a Minotaur, so even if everything goes perfectly in the battle, restarts may still need to happen. Minotaurs also become outclassed by Centurions later in the game.

These units' usefulness in a speedrun are unknown:

• Undead Summoner - You can unlock Taithleach by completing the Dead of Night league in Mordare. Completing this league may actually be the quickest for a speedrun, since The Wyrd league requires several nonhuman classes, and Circle of Elites Tier 2 requires Tier 1 to be complete in every other arena. But Taithleach may not help with speedrunning much, since his Skeleton summoning abilities aren't very powerful for a while, and he seems to slow down battles a lot. He does have the ability to curse opponents to death later in the game, and he can wield Death's Head Staff which can kill someone in one hit sometimes. His abilities could make him extremely useful in the later portions of the game, but he probably won't be useful for a good portion of the game, keeping him at a low level when his time comes to actually be useful. Though he is basically immortal in battles where your opponents are all ranged. They also are non-human, which helps with battles that restrict human gladiators.
• Dervishes - They are completely immune to air affinity attacks, which could be useful for battles that are extremely difficult, but the author of this Knowledge Base entry simply hasn't played around with them much to know a lot about them. You can use the temporary recruit glitch to hire them for free in Imperia.
• Summoners - Can be recruited in the Southern Expanse, and have the same potential for exploitation as Channelers when equipped with the Asaya and Talisman. They can also just summon affinity, unlike Channelers who have to steal it from other gladiators. Far Strike is an ideal attack for this, which has enough damage to one hit kill most enemies, but it relies on the button mashing meter, which is very difficult. This is still a far more useful strategy for a speedrun than actually summoning though, and Channelers just seem more consistent and not much (if at all) less powerful.
• Murmillos - Their Throw Shield attacks, along with their good defense and ranged attack resistance makes them pretty effective. But you already have a good supply of medium recruits with your heroes, and I'm unsure if there's ever a reason to use them instead of Centurions or Secutors.