In real life where battles could last for days, the actual fighting was much shorter. It could take a few hours, including capturing fleeing men, but most of the time was spent of camping and waiting for a good time for an attack (an extreme example, the battle of Tours lasted for 7 days Battle of Tours. Also these were large scale battles with thousands and ten-thousands of soldiers on each side.
In Battle Brothers we have only little skirmishes. These fights won’t be over in 80 seconds, but 10-15 minutes for a medium sized battle (12-12) with good armor on both sides sounds realistic. The largest battles would probably take 30 minutes at most, including hunting down routing units (i.e. finding that last archer).
Hmm, I’m not sure why would you say that. I thought when we’re ambushed/surrounded in forest, you know they’re coming in all directions (as opposed to the right side in usual battle), but you won’t know how many of them coming in a certain direction, unless you have spotted all of them, which takes several rounds. Well, in a forest you’ve never been before, with so many trees hindering your sight, and the terrain is rather uneven, how can you easily traverse the area and locate/attack the enemy?
Well, if you are ambushed in the forest, the enemy is probably very close, close enough for the combat to start in 1-2 turns. You could say the combat starts when your scouts notice something suspicious (shades moving between the trees) and then everyone prepares their weapons.
In other words, there’s no need to chance the game in this aspect. Reinforcements arrive if they are close by. Other enemy groups outside the battle couldn’t move much further even if the battle lasts very long. It’s working, it’s simple, leave it as it is.
