 In this tutorial we investigate which units can dig and fill moats, how fast they are and which units tend to drown most often. We will also examine some tactics that might help you to deal with enemy moats more quickly and with fewer casualties and we learn how to get allies to help us dig our moats...
Submitted by Lord_Michael, LordBritian, Lord_Nick, Bill_the_Brave, Ratty, and Aubergine
This tutorial assumes you have already read our main tutorial on Moats that explains how to dig moats both in the game and in the map editor - if you haven't already seen it, please read it now before continuing with this tutorial. Even if you have read it before, we updated it just before publishing this tutorial so it's got some new stuff now. Note: Speeds shown for moat digging and filling vary between different computers and map complexities and are intended as a rough guide only. Tips on Digging Your Moats It takes four shovels to dig a single tile of moat and all units that are able to dig seem to do so at the same rate. However, there are some small differences based on the speed at which your units can walk on land and also in the water as well as the pattern in which they dig the moat - but more on that later... The types of units you use will be affected by the stage of the game at which you start digging (or repairing) your moat. Early on in the game you would normally use slaves (in Stronghold Crusader) or spearmen as they are relatively cheap costing 5 and 28 (if buying spears) respectively. By the time enemy troops start moving towards your castle walls, you may consider using armoured troops such as macemen or pikemen especially if enemy ranged attackers are causing problems. Even so, it's usually so much cheaper to use slaves that you won't mind the increased number of casualties in most cases. The following table shows which units can dig moats, ordered by speed with the fastest first going to the slowest at the end (although there really isn't much difference): | Unit | Speed
(tiles per month) | Relative Efficiency | Notes | | Pikeman | 2.93 | 100% | Expensive to recruit but can withstand enemy attacks (ranged and melee) better than any other moat digging unit | | Slave | 2.90 | 99.14% | Cheapest unit to recruit but easily killed by the enemy | | Maceman | 2.83 | 96.63% | Relatively expensive to produce but leather armour gives him acceptable protection against enemy attacks | | Engineer | 2.81 | 95.83% | In Stronghold 1, the engineer is the easiest unit to recruit at the start of the game as he needs no weapons or armour | | Archer | 2.81 | 95.83% | As long as you have bows, the archer is cheap to produce and can always stop them digging to shoot arrows at enemy troops | | Spearman | 2.80 | 95.58% | Once you have spears in your armoury, the spearman is cheaper than all other units except slaves | | Engineer with burning oil | 2.75 | 93.84% | The pot of oil seems to slow him down! |
Although pikemen are top of the list, remember they are slow walkers so it will take them longer than any of the other units (with possible exception of engineers carrying burning oil) to get to the site where you want your moat digging to take place. The spearmen and archers you get at the start of most missions can be used to create moats without the need for recruiting any troops. But remember, if they get killed you could be left with no defending troops. We found that by using a combination of pikemen and slaves (or spearmen) to dig the moat seemed to yield good results, especially when there are nearby enemy attackers as the pikemen will take most of the enemy fire. Fear factor has no noticable effect on the speed at which moats are dug, although a high positive fear factor (eg. +5) will result in stronger troops that can survive enemy attacks a little better which in turn gives them more moat digging time before being killed. When telling units to dig a moat, it's a good idea to task them in groups of 5 at a time and get them to dig in different locations. This helps avoid "lazy troops" that just stand around and watch. To create a moat around your castle in the fastest possible time, reduce its width as shown below: 
To do this, use the moat template tool to draw the usual 3 tile wide moat and then use the template eraser tool to bring it down to a single tile. By doing this your moat will protect a larger area of your castle walls in a shorter space of time because your troops have less digging to do and it can always be widened afterwards to make it stronger. Block off enemy attack routes first before strengthening your moat! A note on Your Allies... In Stronghold Crusader, we found a some neat tricks regarding Allies and moats. Did you realise that your Allies will help you dig your moats? If you have an ally that digs their own moats, such as Richard the Lionheart, thier moat diggers will help dig your moats! Simply paint some moat template as if you were going to dig the moat and thier moat diggers will help you dig it! Usually they get a bit lazy so they are only of limited use, but it's a great undocumented way to get help from an ally. Have you ever had allies put moats where you don't want them? While you can use the moat template eraser tool to remove their moat templates before they dig their moats, they will simply replace them. Even if you use the normal delete tool to remove their moats after they have been dug, they will still replace them! This can be annoying but there is a way to overcome the problem - if you have plenty of wood, simply place wooden spike traps (killing pits) on their moat templates (or land where they would usually dig moats) - now they can't put moats there! All friendly troops and civilians will be able to walk over the traps without a problem but if enemies try they will get a nasty shock! Furthermore, if enemies do walk on to the traps without you realising, the ally will quickly sieze the change to re-dig their moats thus filling the hole in the defences! Did you realise you could create moats in the vicinity of the ally castle? Just as you can dig moats within a set range of your own castle, the same is true of your allies castles! If there is a troublesome enemy attack route, try placing moats to block it off. If your ally keeps loosing towers or walls help them by digging a protective moat near their castle - even if they do not usually dig moats. You'll probably have to task your troops with the digging but it's a great way to extend the protective features of moats. Filling in Enemy Moats In order to allow your melee units to get to the enemy castle walls, you will sometimes have to fill in moats that surround all or part of the castle walls. To fill in a moat, select some troops and then target the enemy moat with your mouse cursor - it will change to a shovel indicating that the moat can be filled in as shown below: 
It takes four shovels to fill in a single tile of moat. The troops that can fill in enemy moats are listed below, starting with the fastest at the top and going to the slowest at the bottom: | Unit | Speed
(tiles per month) | Relative Efficiency | Notes | | Spearman | 3.60 | 100% | Fast and cheap but vulnerable to attack | | Slave | 3.60 | 100% | Fast and very cheap but also very vulnerable to attack | | Engineer (with or without oil) | 3.00 | 83.3% | Relatively cheap but vulnerable to attack | | Archer | 2.84 | 78.8% | Relatively cheap and can be told to stop digging to shoot at enemy troops | | Pikeman | 2.84 | 78.8% | Expensive but strong against enemy attack | | Maceman | 2.70 | 75.0% | Moderately expensive but well protected against enemy attack and gets to location more quickly than a pikeman |
Unlike moat digging, units filling in a moat always stand on dry land. Another difference is that some units fill the in moat faster because they are faster diggers as shown in the table above (this has nothing to do with their walking speed). As you can see from the table above, pikeman are faster moat fillers than the humble maceman - but remember it takes the pikeman a lot longer to get to the moat in the first place. When under attack, it seems that a combination of pikemen and slaves (or spearmen) work well together in terms of successfully digging up the moat. While the pikemen take most of the enemy fire a large number of slaves will overwhelm the enemy archers allowing the moat to be filled in more quickly. We conducted an experiment whereby a walled-in moat of 12x6 tiles was filled in using several different methods. Spearmen were told to dig the moat in the normal manner and by default they chose to dig the outer edge of the moat resulting in slow progress. We tried directing them to dig nearest themselves, in the middle of the moat and at the far side of the moat. The fastest method (repeated 6 times with various changes) was always accomplished by clicking at the far side of the moat, where you want the breach to happen. This will get rid of some of the micromanaging of moat fillers allowing you to get on with other tasks. The other point that came to mind, was that Fear Factor has no effect on the speed in which they fill in a moat, but it does effect their chances of survival. Positive fear factor gives them additional defense, while negative fear factor reduces their hit points. Protecting Moat Fillers Enemy moats are usually defended by enemy troops on nearby castle walls and because moat filling may take a while your troops will be easy targets for the enemy. To overcome this problem you can either use armoured troops, such as Pikemen, that are well defended against enemy archers or better still kill off the defending troops before starting to dig the moat. As you will need to kill those defending troops regardless it's usually a good idea to do this before filling in the moat to minimize casualties. The following units can attack over a moat before it is filled in (or while it is being filled in if you are in a rush). We've listed them in order of preference: - Tower Ballista and Mangonels - if you have towers that are close enough to the enemy, you can use these devices to inflict damage on the enemy castle with minimal risk to your own troops
- Trebuchets - Trebuchets have the longest range of all siege equipment and are excellent for destroying towers and gatehouses - try to take our any enemy tower ballista first
- Horse Archers - Although your horse archers will take a pounding from the enemy defences they are lethal in large numbers - get 100 or more horse archers to patrol along the moat and they will do an excellent job of clearing castle defences
- Crossbowmen - Although crossbowmen are quite slow, their leather armour will give them some protection against enemy defenders. Either use large numbers (and expect a lot of casualties) or weaken the enemy defences with other units before sending them in
- Archers and Arabian Bowmen - once your horse archers and trebuchets have weakened the enemy defences, archers and arabian bowmen start to become more useful but horse archers are still better if available
- Catapults - Catapults are perfect for bringing down castle walls, towers and gatehouses but are very weak against enemy archers and tower ballista
- Fire Ballista - These mobile ballista are excellent in groups when defended by shields and a few strong melee units. Send in horse archers first to weaken the enemy defences then use fire ballista to destroy buildings and units in the enemy castle while the moat is being filled in
- Slingers - Before using slingers you really need to kill those enemy archers and crossbowmen. Slingers are particularly useful for killing off any enemy melee units stood on the other side of the moat
- Fire Throwers - Fire throwers have relatively short range but can set fire to buildings on the other side of the moat to help clear a path for your troops once the moat has been filled in - it would always be far better to use fire ballista if available
- Engineers with burning oil - they are easy targets for enemy archers and can only attack across a very narrow moat so you would not normally want to use them (we just included them here for completeness)
It's highly advisable to use wooden shields to protect your ranged units where possible - if you make enough of these you will be able to build a temprorary wooden wall along the moat making it much safer for your units charged with clearing the castle defences. Drowning Units In Stronghold Crusader there is a new phenomenon whereby troops drown when filling in enemy moats. For a long time it was assumed that the enemy was somehow killing them (with assassins or archers, etc.) but then Ratty brought it to our attention and captured the phenomenon with this series of pictures: 
20 macemen are sent to fill in a moat
Suddently you notice them fading out and dissapearing
As digging continues, more and more drown
Before long, only 5 are left!
This phenomenon was further reinforced when we noticed that units digging moats around our own castles were also drowning. It makes no difference whether you are digging your own moat or filling in an enemy moat - it's risky business for your troops! It's possible for units to dig or fill in moats for several years without drowning or drown within a few months of starting - the effect is random and happens to all units when playing Stronghold Crusader. On average, 5 units will drown every 13 to 25 months. Drowning only happens while they are filling in the moat. There are reports of units having survived digging or filling a moat becoming immune to drowning when they dig or fill subsequent moats. If anyone can confirm this, please post a comment below this tutorial. Summary When digging your own moat, start with a thin band around your castle to block off enemy attack routes in the shortest possible time. As the game continues, you can easily widen the moat to make it stronger. It's a good idea to attack the enemy castle with ranged units before, during and after the moat has been filled in. Horse archers, trebuchets, fire ballista and stone throwers are the most useful units here. I've you've got the cash, posting groups of crossbowmen is a great way to keep enemy troops in check. Protect these units with shields if possible to minimise casualties. To fill in the moat, the best units to use are spearmen and slaves - they will do the job quickly and don't cost much to recruit. If you are unable to get rid of enemy defenders (particularly archers) then you might want to consider adding pikemen to the mix - although they are slower and more expensive to recruit they can withstand more arrows while they dig the moat. Here is a table that summarises the statistics we found while producing this tutorial: Unit | Tiles dug / Month
(efficiency) | Tiles filled / month
(efficiency) | Recruitment Cost | Weapons Cost
(value) | Armor Cost
(value) | Total Cost
(value) | Arrows to Kill | Bolts to Kill | Stronghold 1 Walking Speed | Stronghold Crusader Walking Speed | Archer | 2.81
(95.90%) | 2.84
(78.89%) | 12 | 31
(15) | - | 43
(27) | 5 | 1 | Fast | Fast | Engineer | 2.81
(95.90%) | 3.00
(83.33%) | 30 | - | - | 30 | 1 | 1 | Average | Average | Engineer with Oil | 2.75
(93.86%) | 3.00
(83.33%) | 30 | - | - | 30 | 1 | 1 | Slow | Slow | Maceman | 2.83
(95.59%) | 2.70
(75.00%) | 20 | 58
(30) | 25
(12) | 103
(62) | 15 | 3 | Fast | Average | Pikeman | 2.93
(100%) | 2.84
(78.89%) | 20 | 36
(18) | 58
(30) | 114
(68) | 50 | 17 | Average | Slow | Slave | 2.90
(98.98%) | 3.60
(100%) | 5 | - | - | 5 | 1 | 1 | - | Fast | Spearman | 2.80
(95.56%) | 3.60
(100%) | 8 | 20
(10) | - | 28
(18) | 3 | 1 | Fast | Average |
Note: Units above are in no particular order, unlike earlier tables. Costs are for Stronghold Crusader. Values show how much gold you would get if you sold the weapons and armor. Verily the Moat!
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