Generally speaking a player can move his troops how he wishes within the confines of the rules governing movement. However, sometimes troops go out of control for some reason, either because they are overcome by sheer terror, because they are compelled by strange magic, or because they are disorientated or confused. The player has no control over the movement of these troops and so these are referred to as compulsory moves.

The most common kind of compulsory move is fleeing. Fleeing troops always flee away from their enemy or towards their own base table edge, and they always move a randomly determined distance.

All compulsory movement is done now before other movement takes place. This gives troops moving in this way the opportunity to get in the way, block lines of advance and do all sorts of other annoying things.