We regularly play games at the Club with 5 or 6 players and they produce an enjoyable evening of chaos. Plenty of skulduggery as players try to exploit the situations to their advantage.
To speed things up we allow players to move or activate 2 figures at a time with close combats worked through singly in initiative order with each close combat completed before moving on.
Rather than dice for initiative we draw chits and a Company must move, shoot or fight when it's chit comes out. To add to the chaos we draw chits at the start of each movement, shooting and combat phase, so there is no guarantee that if you move first you will also get to shoot or fight first.
Having clear objectives for each Company which ties in with the overall campaign thread also helps ensure that games are brought to a conclusion in a reasonable time.
John