Bale I'm with ya buddy, I hate those times too, We had a guy attack murder right after the fight, I'm not sure why it took so long to reach him.
If you want to make sure the times are set to a decent time just have murder sit in front of tulga, as that is our point of attack (Obviously) so we can hold him up as long as possible. All jokes aside you guys are taking our S&D and try to dash away, which turns into us doing anything possible to stop them, which sometimes makes for horrible battles as its an attack of first opportunity.
I'm not trying to be facetious but normal battle times could be acquired by setting up open battlefield fights between the two parties, we attack once, you attack next, etc. Or you continue to steal our S&D and force the chance that we try and hold that entity, or its supporting army near by before you have the chance to leave our land.
Again, No one likes these times, Yesterday was the first fight I was able to make because of work.
If your serious about setting these fights, Have any army that has a large amount of our goods sit put and not dash out. Now I know that's not very authentic proposal to a war game, but the only solution I can think of right now that facilitates our need to keep the goods in our land, and your needs for a decent battle time, I'm all up for idea's tho.