The strength of a defended city was in its walls, and the weakest point was the entrance. Thus we saw the Lamanite attack on Noah that the Lamanites attempted to breach the defenses at the gate (Alma 49:18-19). Rather than face the Lamanite army where they were most strongly gathered, Moroni scales the walls in the dark.
Moroni’s actions against Nephihah have an eerie parallel to the Aztec taking of the city of Quetzaltepec:
“When the Aztecs tried to conquer the six-walled fortress of Quetzaltepec, scouts were sent at night to find a way to enter, as was standard practice, but the found none. As a result, the Aztecs constructed wooden ladders, used them to scale the walls, and conquered the fortress.” (Hassig 1998, p. 107-8).
As with many other occasions we have seen with Moroni, he used tactics that became standard practice in later Mesoamerican warfare. While it is possible that he was the ultimate innovator of these strategies, it may also be that he simply used them well, and they were already known by his time. However, Moroni is living at a time when there is both increased inter-city warfare among the Maya, and a greater concentration of walled cities. The tactics for attacking walled cities may have just been developing around Moroni’s time. Whether he was the originator or not, he was certainly effective in his employment of these tactics.