I broke down the last and longest combat from Sunday's session (combat encounter 7) and recorded the time taken for each turn and even broke down the individual elements of stuff I did as DM, and when possible, marked out time spent on table talk and rules questions (it wasn't much time). For this reason, the numbers may not perfectly align with those above because sometimes things overlap or I am a second over or under. This ain't a moonshot, so I think I can afford to have an error of +/- 3 seconds.
Ultimately, I think our combat is interesting, fun, and moves at a quick smooth pace. I probably won't be doing this again and it is tedious and takes a lot of time. I will be gathering combat length for a few more combats for my remote game, but I think I will drop back in and take another taste of data when they get to 4th level and see if there is a difference.
The longest individual turn took over 4 minutes, but that turn involved a player using a new spell he'd never used before and that I as DM was unfamiliar with - most of them are in the 30 second to minute mark.
Set-Up: The party and their elven ally have found Janx—an elven dog (basically a cooshee/blink dog hybrid) that is the ally’s companion and has been made sick and aggressive by eating strange melons that a local wizard seems to be planting in different places to makes animals transform into monstrous varieties of themselves (assuming it does not kill them in the process). He is accompanied by three sickly aggressive wolves and the four of them are tearing at a moose corpse. The party druid (a tabaxi) started the fight in wildshaped to wolf form to get close to Janx and see if she could lead him away, as the party hopes to grab a hold of him long enough to force feed him the cure.
Janx was in the middle of giving the druid-wolf a good sniff, while the other wolves expressed their displeasure with a strange wolf’s appearance with growls, when the party’s halfling gloomstalker flubbed a stealth check as he tried to get closer through the brush, instigating initiative.
ROUND ONE (7 minutes 47 seconds)
1. DM: NPC Ally moves towards clearing, dashing to make up for slowed movement through difficult terrain. She does not make it all the way past the tree line. [21 seconds]
2. Player A: Dashes as bonus action (using cunning action), moves and attacks a wolf, missing (1 minute, 10 seconds)
3. Player B: Moves forward through difficult terrain to get a clear shot at a wolf, shoots bow twice and misses both times (1 minute, 56 seconds)
[26 seconds of table cross talk]
4. DM: Janx moves to flank Player A, bites him, character makes save to avoid being knocked prone, and Janx blinks 30 feet away as a bonus action) (42 seconds).
5. DM: Two wolves (using pack tactics) attack Player A with advantage. One hits and the character fails his save and is pulled prone, and the other also hits. Third one bites at Player B and crits! But he is not pulled off his feet. (1 minute 46 seconds)
6. Player C: Moves and dashes to get through the difficult terrain and break through the tree line (40 seconds)
7. Player D: Still in wolf-form, moves to attack a wolf on Player A, misses her bite. (46 seconds)
ROUND TWO (6 minutes 7 seconds)
- DM: NPC Ally finishes moving through difficult terrain and then readies an action to fire an arrow when there is a clear shot (24 seconds)
- Player A: Stands, attacks a wolf, misses, and then disengages (bonus action) to move back fifteen feet (30 seconds)
- Player B: Attacks wolf, hits (1 minute 6 seconds)
- DM: NPC Ally’s readied action goes off, fires arrow and hits wolf (26 seconds)
- DM: Janx delays (11 seconds)
- DM: Two wolves bite at Player D with advantage and both miss (36 seconds)
- DM: Janx takes his action (waiting for the wolves to get in good position), he blinks behind Player D, flanking and biting with advantage and hitting. Player D is knocked prone. (38 seconds)
- DM: Remaining wolf attack is resolved: attacks Player B and misses (7 seconds)
- Player C: Moves and attacks Janx, missing (1 minute, 2 seconds)
- Player D: stands, tears the throat out of an attacking wolf (1 minute, 7 seconds)
ROUND THREE (7 minutes, 56 seconds total)
1. Player A: Moves, attacks a wolf, crit! Kills it and dashes with a bonus action (1 minute, 52 seconds)
[29 seconds of table cross talk]
2. Player B: Attacks a wolf and hits (33 seconds)
3. DM: NPC Ally moves to flanking Janx and attacks hitting (34 seconds)
[29 seconds for a rules clarification]
4. DM: Wolf Attacks Player B, hits and knocks him prone (47 seconds)
5. DM: Janx let’s out a howl! Turns and bites Player C and knocks him prone. Janx blinks 30’ away (bonus action) (49 seconds)
6. Player C: Stands, fires arrow at wolf attacking Player B, hits. (32 seconds)
7. Player D: Moves, grapples Janx (1 minute, 15 seconds)
8. DM: describes 2 Death Dogs arriving (46 seconds)
ROUND FOUR (11 minutes, 56 seconds)
- DM: First Death Dog makes two bite attacks against Player D, both miss. Echoing bark as bonus action (NPC ally, Players C and D, and Janx make Wisdom saves, Player C fails). Second death dog bites twice at NPC Ally hitting once, she makes a successful CON save. (2 minutes, 14 seconds)
- Player A: Moves to Player C to grab elixir off his pack (I made him make a DC sleight of hand to pull it free quickly and easily without needing to use an action, he makes it), bonus action to dash to Janx, and pours elixir down the grappled elven dog’s throat (2 minutes, 48 seconds)
- Player B: Stands, casts Zephyr Strike (bonus action), moves to Death Dog by NPC Ally, attacks and hits. (4 minutes, 19 seconds)
- DM: NPC Ally casts Magic Missile at Death Dog (30 seconds)
- DM: remaining wolf attacks Player C and crits! Player C rolls STR save and fails, falling prone (44 seconds)
- DM: Janx breaks free of grapple and then blinks away into thick brush (40 seconds)
- Player C: is frozen in fear until the end of his turn, speed is 0, no actions or reactions. (0 seconds)
- Player D: turns to bite death dog and misses (41 seconds)
ROUND FIVE (6 minutes 25 seconds)
- DM: One Death Dog double bites Player D and she fails her CON save. She changes back to tabaxi form The other crits NPC Ally. (1 minute, 27 seconds)
- Player A: Moves and attacks a death dog, misses and crits! Killing it (1 minute, 15 seconds)
- Player B: Fires arrow at death dog, misses (30 seconds)
- DM: NPC Ally disengages trying to draw death dog away from prone paladin (28 seconds)
- DM: Remaining Wolf attacks Player C while prone (22 seconds)
- DM: Janx takes no action trying to spit out elixir (6 seconds)
- Player C: Stands, moves to attack death dog and kills it. (57 seconds)
- Player D: Uses feline agility ability to double move through difficult terrain to reach where Janx is hiding in the brush, grapples Janx again. (1 minute 14 seconds)
[6 seconds assessing situation and other DM narration]
ROUND SIX (3 minutes 25 seconds)
- Player A: dashes to flank remaining wolf and attacks (54 seconds)
- Player B: move over towards where Player D is grappling Janx through difficult terrain, dashing (27 seconds)
- DM: NPC Ally dashes through difficult terrain towards the scrum, pulls out second curative elixir (22 seconds)
- DM: Janx Blinks out of grapple, reappears on other side of brush (14 seconds)
- Player C: eats some goodberries and as the only one left on this side of the brush with Janx, engages with him (38 seconds)
- Player D: casts thorn whip, hits Janx and yanks him back into the brush (50 seconds)
ROUND SEVEN (2 minute 26 seconds)
- Player A: Hustles over and joins grapple (50 seconds)
- Player B: Moves to scrum and readies to the “Help” action for Janx tries to break free of the grapple. (1 minute)
- DM: NPC Ally runs over to Janx to pour second curative elixir down his throat, but totally misses, wasting it. (23 seconds)
- DM: Janx blinks away again, reappearing 30 feet away, but then immediately collapses. (13 seconds)
It probably bears noting that my group using a houseruled version of ready and delay that actually moves your place in initiative order.