Moat

Moat is a defensive structure in front of the walls in towns with Citadel or Castle. The moat has different effects in siege combat. Both attacking and defending creatures:

• on the moat suffer additional 10% damage from non-magic attacks
• are not able to move across the moat during combat round, but are forced to stop on the moat for the the rest of the round
• have their defense reduced.
• take damage from entering the moat and for each round they stay in this moat.

Moats in the original Restoration of Erathia and Armageddon's Blade versions did not cause any damage, with the exception of Tower's Land Mines. It was introduced in Shadow of Death expansion.

Damage:

All moats cause damage to creatures if they are forced to cross the moat. The amount of damage depends on the town type as follows:

• Castle has water as moat and cause 70 points of damage
• Rampart has brambles as moat and cause 70 points of damage
• Stronghold has wooden spikes as moat and cause and cause 70 points of damage
• Necropolis has boneyard as moat and cause 70 points of damage
• Fortress has boiling tar as moat (2 hexes wide) and cause 90 points of damage
• Dungeon has boiling oil as moat and cause 90 points of damage
• Inferno has lava as moat and cause 90 points of damage
• Tower does not have a moat per se, but has landmines in front of the wall.

Tower's Land Mines

In Restoration of Erathia and Armageddon's Blade, Tower's land mines work in the same way as the the spell of the same name. The damage is calculated with the formula:

10 × P + L

where P is the value of power skill, and L is a constant based on the level of expertise in Fire Magic the defending hero has (25 for Basic, 50 for Advanced, and 100 for Expert). If no hero is present, the land mines will deal 55 damage. If a hero is present, the land mines will use the formula above, even if it works out to be less than 55. To exceed 55 damage, the hero needs to have:

• at least 4 power skill without Fire Magic or with Basic Fire Magic; or
• Advanced or Expert Fire Magic

In Shadow of Death, they function the same as in Restoration of Erathia and Armageddon's Blade, except that they always do at least 150 damage, no matter the defending hero's expertise in Fire Magic or spell power. To exceed 150 damage, the hero needs to have:

• at least 13 spell power without Fire Magic, or with Basic Fire Magic,
• at least 11 spell power with Advanced Fire Magic, or
• at least 6 spell power with Expert Fire Magic

Other noteworthy facts:

• Protection from Fire will reduce the damage of the land mines.
• The Orb of Tempestuous Fire will increase the damage of the mines by 50%.
• The mines can be removed with expert level Dispel spell.
• Creatures that are unaffected by the mines (they will not explode):
  • All defending creatures
  • Creatures with fire magic immunity (e.g. Fire Elementals).
  • Creatures with spell immunity (e.g. Black Dragons).
  • If either of the heroes has the Recanter's Cloak equipped, all creatures will be immune to the mines.