User blog comment:Gundam Legilis/Faunus... inferior or superior?/@comment-23790511-20140419161451/@comment-116.192.0.20-20140421135027

No offense Zolnir, but the point of an ambush is that it comes unexpected--thus, a daily ambush would be a bit of a misnomer.

Other than that, I absolutely agree with you. The ability to operate throughout the entire night is such a complete game-breaker that (assuming primitive tech levels) I'm actually somewhat shocked the Faunus people didn't simply steamroll the entirety of the human forces (well, unless they were outnumbered something like a thousand to one--but then again, Sun Tzu led an army of 33,000 and crushed an army of over 300,000 so, one would at least think that Faunus would at least have gained more concession rights other than "no genocide" or "right to not live in concentration camp").

It's hard to emphasize this given our amazing technology today, but people in ancient times simply did not fight at night. To do so was considered almost suicide. Sure, one could ambush their opponent, burn their camps--but straight up battles? No, never. Many of the greatest commanders that did insane things in the ancient world would never have even considered a night battle. In fact, due to a shorter day, what was originally supposed to have been a single bloody slugfest between Septimius Severus and his rival Whateverhisname for the fate of the Roman Empire was ended twice, due to both generals absolutely refusing to fight at night due to the total lack of reliable lighting devices.

Realize:

Torches were inefficient, had to be brought in truly vast quantities, and would have coated the entire battlefield in deadly smoke. People would constantly go blind from shifting night conditions (think about how long it takes you eyes to adjust to seeing a flashlike in the dark?), and the human psyche would literally go mad due to the urge to sleep.

So again, to reiterate:

How the fuck did the faunus not curbstomp humanity back to the Stone Age? (assuming primitive tech, of course)