You'll often see references on the site about "Hardwar time". This means time relative to the game's clock. Many of the plot events and descriptions of Hardwar tactics involve Hardwar time.

Hardwar time is 1/60th of real time. One Hardwar minute is only one second of real time. One Hardwar hour is a real time minute. It takes 24 real minutes for one Hardwar day to pass.

Playing through the plotline, for an experienced pilot, generally takes around 8 hours or 20 Hardwar days.

This really makes you appreciate the pilots that have run games into the hundreds of days. That represents dozens of hours of play.