One of the things that kind of put me off to this game is sitting through the long-winded combat animations (does summoning every little creature have to be treated as a cinematic event?) I looked for an option to shut them off for quicker combat like some games have; I couldn't find one, but is there possibly one hidden away somewhere less obvious?

There is one in E2 (I don't know about E1).

Yes there is a way to speed up the battles in that way.

Hide Movement and Hide Cast/Summons are the options you want to have an x in. They are found in the Combat Options tab.

Try hitting F1 or F2 to get back to the main zoomed out screen to select your units for attacks and things like that. Most of the F keys are different camera angles but those i listed show your hero and forces to best advantage for your convenience.

turn off automatic camera. it's on the bottom left of the first tab. alternatively you can just turn camera dynamics slider way down, but I eventually turned off the automatic camera entirely even though I prefer it because I kept running into bounding box problems with my or the enemy hero's or their monsters preventing from clicking something behind them.

PS WarLock Lord love your MoM avatar. Reminds me of my own, although this one is from Eador Genesis.

Even better. Thanks! Hehe, thanks. I'd been using the one that came as a bonus from the Catacombs Pack but too many other people use that one and it gets confusing. I always did like Rjak's portrait and it goes well with my handle here.

Since no one mentioned it I'll leave it here for future questions: you can also hold down Spacebar during animations: they will play almost instantly.