For beginners, just play some games until you get familiar, I'm not going into the bare basics of the game here, but specifically speedrunning basics.

TECHNICALITIES AND STRATEGIES:

Observe / Spectate off: Turn spectating off by using Alt+X in (probably) every run. This saves about 2-5+ seconds, depending on how many players the map has. This can be done before the timer starts by performing following steps: -Before going into the map, after clicking begin, there will be a loading bar -while this loading bar gets fuller, hold Alt -as soon as it reaches 95%, (keep holding Alt and) spam X. The menu will open and you can set spectating off. -the timer only has to start once you accept your hero. Note: This only works if you are not the first player. The first player immediately starts. Therefore, unless the map layout is such that first player (white) is preferrable, choose a non-white player to gain those seconds. Especially relevant in Random Map since as far as I know right now there is no way to predict where you end up and with what starting units.

Pressing m to move all units is a good idea at the start of most turns. Then, your units finish the orders from previous turns if possible.

You can save milliseconds by pressing Alt+E (end turn) while your last unit is moving if you know that's the last action you are taking. The unit will finish moving and instantly the turn will be finished.

Keyboard presses like Enter to get to the next movable unit are crucial to save time, unless there's too much going on or few specific spots you know you are faster by mouse, use your keyboard to cycle through the units.

Very often, you don't want to produce anything! It's way faster to capture a city and press enter 3 times in quick succession and continue with your unit's movement. Furthermore, a produced unit will get cycled through when pressing Enter, wasting time if you dont need the unit. It will get messy! Careful though: You might want to produce units as protection from enemies or means to capture other cities. I found out though that when in doubt - don't produce. This takes a lot of practice.

In order to win, you need 50% + 1 cities. Familiarize yourself with the map. In the main screen it shows how many cities the map has. Keep count of how many cities you own and/or decide upfront on a plan on which cities to get. If you lost track, instead of hectically counting when there's some time, press k. It displays how many cities you own right now. One key press of Enter will lead you back to the game. This wastes almost no time.

CRITERIA FOR PICKING FRACTION

When deciding what fraction you want to run with, a central starting position is crucial. Central in this case means relative to where you can capture the required amount of cities the quickest.

Non-random maps come with the same starting units each time. When deciding what fraction you want to run with, watch out for flying units as your starter, as they can progress over the map more quickly. These are typically Griffins and Pegasi.

Getting runes early is crucial in some maps as you can get 0-4 allies. When deciding what fraction you want to run with, consider rune locations. Best are Wizard (50 steps) and Dragon (22 steps + flying). Therefore, in rune-critical maps, restart the map if you get bad luck.

Contact me for errors, advice, or if you have important ideas to add!