The Ottoman command appears to have expected a regimented battle even though the Napoleonic era rewarded maneuver. The Napoleonic Wars and the American Civil War both show warfare driven by movement. The trench lines of World War I created the stationary image often projected backward onto earlier wars, while artillery and machine guns made movement far more costly. Those trenches also blocked enemy forces from maneuvering around a field army and reaching its rear. Athos carries the same operational lesson: positions and routes can decide a campaign even when it contains few set-piece battles.
Notable Point · 58:11-59:45
From Napoleonic maneuver to World War I trench lines
The conclusion uses Napoleonic and American Civil War movement, then World War I trench lines, to explain why geography and blocked maneuver matter more than a stereotype of regimented battle.