TS Eiseihei-san no Senjou Nikki - Ch. 19

[TheRealSun]

My issue is they don't set up any stakes for why skipping the magic attack is risky or how much time it normally takes or anything. They just waltz in and massacre everyone, it's kinda boring.

I read this chapter in the LN to see if they explain anything, and it lays it out a little better. Likely an explanation was skipped to save illustration time and for most readers, an explanation is unnecessary for the spectacle.

Essentially, the LN says that generally before this human wave, attacks would be done at specific points so that overwhelming magic force could be used to beak a line. A mass attack like this along the entire offensive line would be risky because you can't rely on magic support, and without that support you don't have an edge to make up the difference when attacking a well-defended position.

You're relying on the enemy's soldiers losing nerve and the enemy's leaders to be unprepared to make up the benefit of them having fortification. Up until that point, no army was willing to gamble that many lives on an attack like that.

I guess the idea is that, as a reader, it happens as shockingly and out-of-nowhere for you as it would have for everyone on our side.