Mormon summarizes the first fifteen years with an emphasis on “bloodshed”—particularly the great battle in the fifteenth year that is the most destructive year (v. 2). Nevertheless, he wants us to see all of the events from the first year of the reign of the judges to this point as preparation for the next section. The first battle he mentions occurred in the fifth year (Alma 2), so he was not mentally marking the beginning point of the first year from a battle. Mormon sees these events as cumulative. There is great increase in war-related detail in the books of Alma and Helaman, where we have more information per year than any other section of the Book of Mormon save the sections on the Messiah’s visit. I suggest that Mormon sees all of these events as an important prelude to that visit.