Helaman attributes Antipus’s near-defeat to their forced march, but he and the Lamanites had covered virtually the same territory with Antipus traveling the shortest distance of the three. Although Helaman does not say so, the Lamanite army may also have been larger than Antipus’s forces. Helaman’s attack on the rear prevents the Lamanite troops from bringing fresher troops from the rear to the front line where the hand-to-hand combat was the most physically draining.