So I bought her and painted her up before I knew how to even play her or build an army around her. Turns out she's a solid warcaster with a spell list that annoys opponents.
I decided to paint her a little different from Stryker, as I don't actually like the idea of painting 40-plus models in the same exact color scheme. So while my army palette is "traditional" Cygnar-blue, yellow, white, with gold, silver, and black trim- , the various units and models might have blue or yellow or whatever as their primary color. To this end, I refer to Haley as "The Yellow Ranger". Stryker is mostly blue, though I'm not sure he's the "Blue Ranger".
Stats:
Haley's stat line does not impress. If Stryker is the high side of average, Haley is the low side. She's not incredibly accurate with her weapons, she's got light armor, and she doesn't have a ton of wounds.
Haley has a special ability called Arcane Vortex that allows her to cancel an enemy spell that targets her or a model near her. It costs her a focus each time she does it, but countermagic in warmachine isn't common.
She does have an impressive focus stat at 7, but her most awesome spell is also quite expensive, so she almost needs that extra focus to get anywhere.
Spells:
That awesome spell is called Temporal Barrier. Haley has a time manipulation theme going for her. It's an amazing spell. Any enemy unit that starts its activation within 14 inches of Haley (her "control area", defined by 'caster focus x 2 in inches) cannot run or charge. Also, those same units have a reduced defense due to slowness. So the spell protects Haley and her army from charges (one of the stronger attacks in the game), limits enemy movement, and gives a serious accuracy boost to her army. Sure, it costs 4 focus, but it's actually hard not to cast it every turn. It's that good.
Haley has other spells too! She's got the Arcane Shield upkeep, a Cygnar mainstay. She also has a non-upkeep unit buff called Deadeye that adds a die to ranged attack rolls.
For offensive magic she has a basic magic-missile type spell that hits about as hard as her pistol but costs focus, a weird warjack-affecting spell called Scramble, and an amazing infantry-killer spell called Chain Lightning.
Scramble forces an enemy warjack to move its normal speed in a random direction. It knocks down any smaller troops it walks through, and if it hits larger stuff-other jacks or bigger solos- it falls down as well. It's an expensive spell for what amounts to a 50/50 chance for the 'jack to move back into enemy troops. If it moves forward then I'm actually helping my opponent move a dangerous bit of machinery toward my army. I better have a pretty good idea of how to capitalize on that if I lose the coin toss.
Chain Lightning is awesome. It does some damage to the target of the spell and then lightning arcs to d6 more models near the original target. Those arcs autohit, so it's a great spell to fire at warjacks screening infantry. It's also expensive at 3 focus. Unless Haley has some other focus boosts she can't do much to power her 'jacks, counter enemy spells, and such if she casts both CL and TB in the same turn.
Weapons: Haley has a basic gun called a Hand Cannon. Lots of warcasters and solos have Hand Cannons. It's a gun that does decent damage with decent range, but it can only be fired once per round. She's not a good shot with it and will have to spend focus or use defense reducing shenanigans like Temporal Barrier to hit with it.
Haley also has an absurdly large spear called the Vortex Spear. She's not particularly accurate with this, and it does less damage than the Hand Cannon, so. . .meh.
It does have Reach to extend her melee threat, so she can engage non-reach units that don't want to be in melee (like Arcane Tempest Gun Mages) and piss them off, I guess. That's alright. The spear also has Set Defense, which gives Haley a defense bonus against charges. If Haley's getting charged, it means that she didn't cast TB last turn. Why?
Feat:
Haley's feat is called Blitz. Every Cygnar model or unit within 14 inches of Haley gets to make an additional attack during their activation. It's a great feat that speaks to Haley's time manipulation theme. I most often use it at long range, to get additional harassment shots in during an advance. It can also be used on the clash turn to make sure melee troops wreck the enemy frontline.
I tend to take units which hit hard with both melee and ranged attacks with Haley, such as Stormblades. That way if they rush into close combat and destroy the front line, they can use their additional attack to fire into the next enemy unit.
Edit: I've just been made aware of the rules of WM, which state that if a model uses it's initial attacks to make melee attacks, then any additional attacks it gains are melee attacks. So I guess that means if my Stormblades rock the front line with melee attacks then they aren't gaining ranged lightning blasts from Blitz.
Overall:
Haley is a control warcaster. She denies movement and spell assassinations quite well, which means that some enemies will have to work overtime against her. She tends to slow the game down, which is anathema to some of my friends' playstyles. Warmachine tends to favor aggressive play; the player who gets in the "alpha strike" usually wrecks the other army. Haley doesn't allow opponents to get that strike in.
One friend in particular hates Haley. Every time I set her down he sighs a little. It's amusing to me because he has an entire "denial" Protectorate of Menoth army which denies me many of my options. I guess it's always shitty when the other guy's doing it.
Melee Power: D. Haley's spear does woeful damage and she barely knows how to use it. Avoid up front confrontation when possible.
Ranged Power: C. The Hand Cannon is average, and Haley can always boost or cast TB to increase her chance of shooting. Reinholdt can grant her an additional shot as well. Not bad, but not great.
Magic Power: B+. Chain Lightning is awesome, and Temporal Barrier helps with just about everything.
Melee Support: B. Her feat helps melee troops mow through foes, and she has Arcane Shield for buffing up her troops. Temporal Barrier makes her whole force more accurate.
Ranged Support: A. Deadeye and TB are fantastic for ranged troops. The fact that TB also prevents charging the next turn helps her ranged troops stay out of retaliation range.
Magic Support: C. She doesn't have many magic attacks to support. . .so she doesn't need a high score here. Temporal Barrier still reduces the defense of enemies in her control area against magic attacks, though.
Tricksiness: B-. She's got a lot of tricks up her sleeve, but she honestly can't do them all at once, and the opponent will probably know it. She's tricky, but in a way that's straightforward and that telegraphs its punches. So. . .good, but not really sneaky.
Lists:
Haley supports all her troops well. I'd suggest the Black 13th and/or Arcane Tempest Gun Mages in every Haley list. She also likes a Defender for long range shots, and she loves the new Storm Strider battle engine for protection on the approach (the base on that thing is huge, and she can cast Arcane Shield on it).
Haley + Defender or Ol' Rowdy (9), Arlan Strangewayes(2), Storm Strider (9)
Haley + Defender (9), ATGM + UA (8) + Hunter (6), Stormblades (5), Squire (2)
Haley + Ol' Rowdy (9), ATGM + UA (8) + 2 Hunters (12), Squire (2), Stormblades + UA (8), Arlan Strangewayes (2)
I like Arlan with her because he's terribly inaccurate with his spray, but her Temporal Barrier helps him hit multiple targets when he uses it. Oh, and his other abilities are solid as well.
Rating: 3.0
-Merlin out
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