We do not know where Mormon gets his opinion of the way Amalickiah would have pressed the attack. When we do see Amalickiah leading an invasion in chapter 51 we have no indication of this type of foolhardy behavior. Perhaps there is information on Amalickiah’s invasion that is not written in Mormon’s text, because Amalickiah does conquer several cities that are fortified as was Ammonihah (Alma 51:26-27). It is possible that the attacks on those cities were documented in the sources and included a lost price of life to conquer those cities. That information Mormon leaves out of his narration, and leaves just this one mention of Amalickiah’s disdain for the life of his warriors. The Lamanite commander of this invasion is repelled by the defenses, and decides to attempt his incursion in a different location.
In verse 11 we have the interesting statement that “Moroni had altered the management of affairs among the Nephites….” We are left to deduce what it was that Moroni had altered in the “management” of the affairs of the Nephites. Since the result of his alteration in management is a fairly uniform set of defenses for different cities, it would appear that one of the things that Moroni is able to do is provide a much more dominant central authority over the cities that were part of the Zarahemlaite hegemony. We have seen much independence in those cities in past chapters dealing with their religion. We must assume that all of their affairs were similarly only loosely related to Zarahemla. In this case, however, we have Moroni exerting sufficient centralized influence as to create uniform defenses. In addition to the defenses that could be seen as enlightened self-interest on the part of the cities, Moroni’s entire program of defense required a unified vision of the land that would appear to be a new concept for the land of Zarahemla.
It is no wonder that Mormon had tremendous respect for Moroni, for his innovations and tactical brilliance were wide ranging, with the innovations ranging from the individual soldier’s protective gear to the protective “gear” for multiple cities. On top of those innovations, he appears to have been able to pull together a central authority in a region that has shown little indication of a desire to obey a centralized authority. As we will see as the story of this war develops, Moroni’s position on what might be termed a national level was perhaps even more secure than that of the Chief Judge over that same land or nation.