I've been thinking a bit and figured it would be helpful to put together some of the things I've learned running this game that would have really helped me out when I first started. If someone else is trying to bleed some more life from Heroes of Might and Magic 2 by speed running it this might help them hit the ground running and understand what's going on in other runs.

1: Turn off sound effects in game:

 -In my first few runs I encountered a lot of stuttering on hero movement and occasional input delays when turns started. Turning off sounds effects fixed both these issues and made the game run a lot smoother saving considerable amounts of time

 -Turning off sound effects also removes the pre-battle fanfare, allowing units to act sooner and saving roughly 3 seconds every battle

2: Saved inputs:

 -When something is happening in game such as an enemy attack, or an animation playing out, inputs you put in during this time will be acted out as soon as possible. This can save a lot of time by inputting whole combat turns if you're certain of where enemies will be (such as ranged units).

 -In combat: I mostly use this to cycle to my most powerful units. If I know my main source of damage will be my third unit moving and the others won't provide a meaningful benefit to the combat I'll input 2 skips and the attack command, this way the game will immediately skip past the unimportant units in the battle with  almost no delay. (A note: do not do this if you have bad morale as you'll have a high chance of skipping right past the unit you wanted, I have absolutely killed a whole run doing this).

 -In castle: When building a building you can set up your next action while the animation plays out. Either hit esc. to exit as soon as possible, or click the fading in building and ready your mouse in position to buy units as soon as you can.

3: Hotkeys:

 -Use as many hotkeys as you can to reduce likelihood of misclicks and required mouse accuracy.

Enter: Default yes/confirm option. Also selects a highlighted hero or town Esc: Default no option. Also leaves current screen or town H: Cycle heroes (Will not select heroes without movement) T: Cycle towns (T,enter: to quickly select and enter town) E: End turn (E,enter: if you have heroes with movement remaining) M: Confirm selected movement path for a hero C: Cast spell either overworld or in combat S: Skip a unit in combat I: Brings up info screen, useful for restarting in campaign runs.

4: General tips and tricks

 -Hiding ranged units

Select compact formation in the hero screen. Place your ranged unit in slots 2 or 4 and flank with you two slowest units. This leaves only a single hex in front of the shooter which can ideally be filled with your fastest unit as soon as possible

 -Turn cycling

If you need to cycle through a lot of turns for resources, creatures or whatever reason, dismiss all heroes if possible to skip confirmation menu, and set enemy visibility to no view if you feel safe enough.

 -It's a timed speedrun, not a days speedrun

While rushing the enemy is usually the best strategy, sometimes its faster to cycle a week or two to be able to skip combats, get stronger units, or let the map develop. It might be faster to run turns instead of sending out a hero to gather resources in some situations.

 -Block Stone Liths

By standing on the dimension doors around the map you can stop enemies from travelling through them. This can potentially seal off sections of the map allowing to leave castles undefended or safely build up a powerful force to sweep the scenario with.

That's about all I can think of right now, but if anyone else has anything to share I would love to see it.

Oh wow I havent been online so I havent noticed this. A really well-written and useful guide you got there!