Alma 49:23 states that because of the many strategic military fortifications which Moroni had instituted, "the Nephites had all power over their enemies." In his report "Defensive Earthworks at Becan, Campeche, Mexico, Implications for Maya Warfare," David L. Webster states:
The Becan earthworks represent one of the most simple yet effective types of defensive system -- the ditch and parapet (embankment). Such systems have a number of distinct advantages, the first of which is simplicity. It requires no particularly inventive mind or prior tradition of military architecture to conceive of a ditch as an effective barrier, and the simple expedient of heaping up the excavated material to form an inner embankment is an immediately logical extension of the latter." . . . I believe the earthworks were thrown up in one continuous effort. Obviously the effort was an extraordinary one, arguing unusual pressures. Under the circumstances, a partially completed defensive system would have been almost as useless as none at all.
[Michael and June Hobby, Proofs of the Book of Mormon, p. 41]