When it gets down to 1 or 2 left on a side, I agree.

In a more crowded melee though, say 10 vs 10, there is a good chance for a wounded person to sneak off while comabt is still being resolved. And combatants will usually go after what is the biggest threat to them, they won't usually break an engagement to pursue a fleeing wounded person.

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Hmm Gurthang. What a nice name for a sword....

In terms of time I'd say 30/60 minutes. Depends on how many rounds are played.
In general our combats are gernerally fast peaced, even with many details in it.

I admit that to reach this point I constructed my own GM screen to give me all the informations I needed.

We, as a group, find much slow the "armour shopping" session

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Si vis pacem, para bellum
I Signori della Guerra: http://www.isignoridellaguerra.com

Really, if I was one of the 2 PC I'll never, ever, played HM again.

Or killed the GM.

Probably both.

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Si vis pacem, para bellum
I Signori della Guerra: http://www.isignoridellaguerra.com

We are gluttons for punishment.

As I have said before, there are many things we like about HM. So far, the good things have kept our interest. And I am blessed (or cursed?) with players that like to figure out rules - how do they apply to various situations? ("Let's fight that same fight again, but this time we should use archers."). But I wonder about new players sticking with the game.

I think HM works for certain kinds of players. I also think that VERY few people on the forums are playing the rules exactly as written. I also get the feeling that some people on the forum think HM is a "simple" and uncomplicated game. Others think the realism and optional rules add a significant amount of complexity. What (if anything) do those two things tell us?

Attached is a breakdown of one of our HMG fights in spreadsheet form. The average time per round was 27 minutes.

Keep in mind, we are using most of the optional rules which add time. Keeping notes, dealing with table top software and arguing about rules also add time.

We use most optional rules...this whole fight would have taken 30 minutes absolute max....

However we do not engage in ; so perhaps that is a major factor!!

Neither do I as a GM keep notes on the PC's. All I do is keep tabs on is the NPC's; which mostly involves working out what modified from IL's their ML's will be. Even monitoring NPC IL's I would not need to do....as the PC's seem quite diligent in reminding me exactly how injured each opponent is

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Plots and schemes are the same thing..

Interesting stuff however Severin! Thank-you!

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Plots and schemes are the same thing..

30 minutes for the whole fight? Is that HMG?

You know, that makes me wonder if not being in the same room adds time as well. I assume your group is together in the same room?

I have a recording video and audio of the session. Probably boring and the file is huge.

HM3, not Gold.

I did not realise you were in different rooms! I have found such experiences untenable due to slowness and need for clarity and 'turn taking'. Our games are like the floor of a stock exchange mixed with with racecourse bookies...

People often roll at the same time; and then I as GM sweep through to match their results...for example after they state intent (which in long combats often turns into repeated actions as they slug in the same fashion with weapon to hand); everone rolls their side concurrently. At the same time I then sweep through with NPC rolls and match. Thus it cuts out player1 rolling action, NPC rolling response, player 2 rolling action, NPC response etc etc. Instead we have player1 result, NPC rolling respnse etc etc. It does not cut down the number of rolls; just the time to roll them as many rolls are concurrent; non sequential. This would be impossibly chaotic if not all there and everone experienced. (New folk slow it down considerably until they get up to speed.)

At critical junctures or moments of suspense we revert to the slower, deliberate methodology...

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Plots and schemes are the same thing..