Mormon does not explain the source of his opinion about Amalickiah’s ruthless expenditure of his soldiers. When he leads an invading army (Alma 51), there is no indication of such foolhardiness. However, Amalickiah does conquer several fortified cities (Alma 51:26–27), suggesting that the records of those engagements may have documented the casualties Amalickiah was willing to absorb to obtain his goal. If so, Mormon excludes it from his abridgment. The Lamanite commander, intimidated by the defenses, decides on a different plan.
Mormon mentions, without details, that “Moroni had altered the management of affairs among the Nephites” (v. 11). I deduce that, since one result seems to be fairly uniform defenses for various cities, he imposed a new level of centralized authority over Zarahemla’s polity. Conformity in this matter was obviously enlightened self-interest on the cities’ part, but Moroni’s entire program of defense also required a unified political-religious vision where before, at best, only Gideon and Jershon were likely to have had that level of religious/political unity. Obviously Moroni had achieved a national position perhaps even more influential than that of the chief judge, even though he made no effort to replace or absorb that position.