Compel is (still) the best spell in the game. We’re starting
with the hot take today!
Genuinely though, there’s no competition. Paralyse and Nature’s
Wrath are amazing, but they only really do one thing. Writhing Vines and Chill
Soul are arguably a little more versatile, but they’re still very limited in
their applicability. But Compel? Compel’s uses are as wide as your imagination,
and remain so, even post-nerf.
As such, this article is diving into all the things you can
do with this incredibly versatile spell. To highlight that versatility, we’re
starting with some of the more unorthodox uses of Compel– specifically, how to use it against your
opponent’s rank and file troops.
Compelling warriors
While Compel initially appears to be an anti-hero spell (even
after losing the Transfix parts of its impact), it actually has a heap of
anti-warrior applications.
The first of these is nice and simple: if your opponent has
an expensive/important warrior model of some sort, then you can use Compel to
drag them forward into a vulnerable position. The classic version of this in the previous edition was Compelling a Bat Swarm forward over the enemy lines to get charged and taken
out by one of your heroes. Bat Swarms were devastating combo pieces, but Compel
could take them out of that combo and into a position where they can be easily slain.
That’s theoretically 35 points worth of value, but in practice it was normally a
lot more valuable (given how important the Bat Swarms are to allowing their
monster buddies to rampage). Gundabad Bats and Crebain are now the closest equivalents, but things like Berserkers are also a good shout. Banners are also great targets for this,
especially if you have multiple casters: nothing says ‘fun!’ like Compelling a
banner bearer away from his friends then Black Darting him/shooting him full of
arrows. This tends to be a littler harder because banner bearers are easier to
box in than things like flyers, but even the threat of doing so is often
enough to make opponents waste models blocking their banners in. And it’s even more
valuable now in some regards, because banner VPs are worth more than ever.
As well as targeting the expensive models, Compel can also
be used to lure random scrubs into useful positions for you. This is especially
useful as a way to set up Hurls and Heroic Combats.
Setting up Hurls is relatively simple in concept: your
opponent has carefully moved his models so that there’s no one in reach of your
monster to be picked up and lob at their mounted heroes. All very clever, but
still not enough to withstand Compel. Simply move one of their models out to
stand in a convenient position, charge into him and yeet him into his buddies.
Bonus points if the guy you’re Hurling was one of the models your opponent
carefully moved to screen you out!
Setting up Heroic Combats is another excellent Compel trick.
Its standard use is when an opponent has carefully left their battleline just
outside the reach of your troops (probably so they can get in another turn of
shooting at you). With Compel, you can bring one of those enemies forward, mob
him with as many models as can fit, call a Heroic Combat and slam everyone into
the enemy lines a turn early! This is obviously even better if you can do so
with someone like Elendil who gets free Heroic Combats. And extra bonus
points if your opponent was carefully screening out their heroes, and you
Compelled one of the models screening them forward to Heroic Combat off and bounce
into the enemy hero (or at least force them to Strike/Defence).
This same trick is also really useful for giving you some extra
mobility in a pinch. You can use Compel to bring a model out to the edge of the
enemy battleline, pile a bunch of guys into them and then Heroic Combat off
them to sweep around their lines. And in the late game, when you
desperately need to get closer to your opponent’s backfield objectives, you can
use Compel to put an enemy model in the perfect position to Combat off and get
where you want to. That’s especially useful with a slower force like the White Council,
which needs all the help it can get to move its models around the field.
Building on all of this, Compel is excellent at opening up
gaps that your opponent had carefully screened out. Your Witch King on Fell Beast
couldn’t quite fit into their leader because there was a warrior
blocking him out? Well, that warrior’s taken a walk and your opponent is in
trouble. There’s exactly one warrior standing on your opponent’s backfield
objective? You could Black Dart or Sorcerous Blast them, but it’s probably more
reliable to Compel them off instead. There’s a single enemy warrior in front of
their leader, ready to soak up a bunch of the crossbow bolts that will be coming
at him this turn? Saruman says that actually that warrior is somewhere else,
and that hero should be very afraid. In general, if there’s a warrior in an
inconvenient location for you, then Compel can immediately solve that problem.
And finally, Compel is excellent in scenarios like old Seize
the Prize or Heirlooms (which seem likely to return in the Matched Play Guide) for
making your opponent drop the relic in inconvenient spots. There are few things
more amusing than making your opponent’s relic-bearer slip through their own
ranks to drop the prize, right into the path of your army. Funny every time!
And of course, all of that is just the uses of Compel
against basic warriors. Once we get into the heroes, then the possibilities get
truly endless!
Compelling heroes
In general, anything you can use Compel to achieve against
warriors, you can also do to heroes. Here, however, it’s got the added benefit
of neutralising an important enemy piece.
That starts off before the battlelines even clash, by threatening to Compel enemy heroes or monsters backwards away from your army. If they’re a mounted hero then they’re likely chilling behind the enemy line, and a successful Compel might see them end up anywhere from 5” to 14” away from their main line if the enemy keep moving forward. That creates a frustrating dilemma for your opponent, where they’re forced to either delay their whole advance to let their hero catch up (giving you the initiative and maybe some extra turns of shooting) or they have to accept that their hero won’t be present for the first turn or two of combat.
The other alternative open to them is to start burning Will and maybe Might to resist. This is often great for you, because it effectively ‘starts the clock’ on how many turns they get to resist your magic a turn or two early, allowing you to shut them down much more readily in the mid-game (see this article for more on how that works). This all gets much, much better once you can start threatening to Compel them forward and jump on them with something scary. In the finals of the first Queensland GT, I cast Compel on Ingold as our lines were approaching. He had to burn his Will and all his Might to resist, because otherwise I would have swooped in with Gûlavhar and torn him apart. As such, once we hit combat Ingold was entirely out of resources, and didn’t really do much for the rest of the game. I’ve used similar threats with Suladân and the Mouth of Sauron, or with the Spider Queen and a Bat Swarm. These days this strategy is slightly more limited, both because Compel no longer includes Transfix and because Compel casters are harder to combo with super combat threats. But all it requires is enough punch that your opponent really doesn’t want to be forced to move their hero into range to get jumped on, which lots of armies can manage one way or another.
With
these sorts of threats, you’re effectively turning your Compel into a better version
of the old Sap Will. ‘Better’ because it casts more easily than Sap Will used to,
and because unlike Sap Will your opponent actually has to resist the
spell. There’s no ‘hope that you don’t roll a 5+ on the roll’ with this kind of
Compel, it’s resist or die! Incidentally, this is why I won’t really miss Sap
Will; it had its useful applications (like against Shamans), but in general you
were better off looking for a spell that your opponent has to resist, rather
than one that they were generally better off ignoring.
Another
cunning ploy relates to dealing with Terror. Lots of Evil models struggle with
Terror checks, and lots of pesky Elf Lords cause Terror innately. That makes
life very difficult for things like Trolls, hordes of Orcs/Uruks, or even a lot
of Evil combat heroes. The answer? Compel the Elf Lord into charging you,
skipping the Terror checks entirely! This does prevent you from getting your
own charge bonus with something like a Gothmog (if you’re still trying to make him
work…), but if you can trap them anyway then it’s often worthwhile to reliably get
around the opponent’s Terror. And even against Terror, Compel lets you move
enemy heroes into vulnerable spots where you can swarm and trap them.
And finally, one very specific use of Compel: messing up Isildur’s day something fierce. Most players like to field Isildur on horse with the Ring, which is generally optimal but can really sting when they end up facing a spellcaster with Compel. That’s because a single botched resist roll can see Isildur scooting 5” backwards and putting on the Ring, then being instantly thrown by his horse to take a S3 hit and be knocked prone. At that point Isildur is potentially 11” behind his battleline (depending on the order of movement) and prone, and you might even get to control him on the following turn if the Ring takes him over (which will happen on a 4+ if you’re playing Minas Morgul!). Brutal!
The real Compel is the one you cast on your opponent
Even better than all of
those excellent uses, however, is the threat of Compel. When you have access to
Compel and a big hitter, your opponent probably doesn’t want to leave their key
heroes in the front rank as you move towards each other, lest you Compel them
forward and kill them. But they equally don’t want to put them behind their
lines, because then you could Compel them backwards and knock them out
of the fight for several turns. The answer is to screen them in so they can’t
move anywhere, but now there are several warriors in awkward spots and their
hero can’t call a Heroic Move without getting stuck. In fact, enemies who
properly screen out your Compels are often left entirely unable to use their
heroes in combat!
Similarly, the existence of Compel makes every bit of
preparative movement a bit more costly for your opponent. If they really need
to block off a gap to prevent you getting to an objective this turn, then they
need to use two models instead of one because you could Compel a lone warrior
out of the way. Their banner may be in a safe spot for right now, but what if
you Compelled it away and then Black Darted/Hurled into it it next turn? If
they want to prevent that, then they need to commit another model to blocking
it in. And if they’re aiming to keep their distance and skirmish, then the
presence of Compel single-handedly adds threat range to whole army. That forces
them to stick even further back, hampering their positioning and giving you
more control over where the fight happens.
All of these
counterplays are sensible, but they impose two tolls on the opponent: first,
they have to put a bunch of models in awkward positions that lead to them not
doing very much; and second, your opponent has to be thinking about all of
these new options and burning mental energy heading them off. It doesn’t matter
if you even noticed that you could have Compelled their banner away from the
fight: the fact that you could notice means your opponent needs to be planning
to prevent it. It’s exhausting, and anything that forces your opponent to burn
brainpower is something that makes them more likely to stuff up later in the
game.
Even better, all of these effects happen without you even
needing to cast the spell! You can simply sit back and point things out to your
opponent, in a very considerate and helpful way. There are few better feelings
in this game than reminding your opponent that you could Compel out a model and
watching them waste another model boxing it in. And if they choose not
to, then it’s time for Compel to really punish them.
It's this mental effect that really elevates Compel above
every other spell in the game, in my view. Chill Soul will kill the odd warrior
or two, but your opponent doesn’t really need to think much about it. Paralyse
is terrifying for heroes that get too close to a Barrow Wight, but if your
opponent stays 12” away then they’re totally safe. And Nature’s Wrath will probably
mess up your battleline a couple of turns a game, but doesn’t tend to set up game-winning
combos like a Compel can.
Compel’s infinite possibilities mean that it’s always
sitting rent-free in your opponent’s head. In that sense, the real Compel was
the one you cast upon your opponent with all the mindgames it enables.
I hope you enjoyed this deep-dive into (what is still) the
best spell in the game. Let me know in the comments if you have any more Compel
tricks that I missed, or share your stories of being victimised by this spell
instead.
And until next time, may your opponent always get in their
own head about your Compel options!
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