Cavern Sniffer, in response to the weapon speed question...allow me to be a bit of a rules-lawer here and tell you how it works in PnP AD&D. When someone gets multiple attacks per round they get their first attack in initiative order to every other combatant and then they get their second and subsequent attacks after everyone has had their first attack. So, in the case of our two hypothetical fighters with four attacks each, the faster one would hit then the slower and back and forth like that. Now, one must keep in mind that weapon speed is just a modifier applied to the player's initiative roll, the lower the better so who hits first really comes down to the luck of the dice with an edge going to the combatant with the faster weapon...in other words it SHOULD make a difference and give advantage to the guy with the faster weapon but if the slower guy has a horseshoe shoved up his ass then he could come out on top. And hey, lets not discount poor to-hit rolls on either side of this equation. Still all things being equal, weapon speed will decide to contest.
As to my favorite sword...it's not 2-handed but Kundane +2 for my thief gives me an extra attack per round and has a speed factor of 0...and if I need extra +'s to hit something there's always Cutthroat.
