Major Victoria Haley

Template:Cygbox This model is playable only in an Unlimited format.

Victoria Haley is a powerful tempest within whom a deep and sorrowful calm resides. Her unmatched talents are tempered with the experience of years of combat as a warcaster. As she gains wisdom in the field of war, she grows in power and flexes her arcane might to dominate the battlefield with magic unrivalled by any warcaster in western Immoren.

Basic Info

Warcaster abilities:

• Focus Manipulation

• Battlegroup Controller

• Power Field

• Spellcaster

• Independent Model

• Leader

Feat :Temporal Shift

Choose d3+5 enemy models currently in Haley's Template:CTRL range. Chosen models must forfeit either their Normal Movement or Combat Action during their next activations. Temporal Shift lasts for one round.

Abilities

• Template:Future Sight
• Field Marshal [ [[:Category:{{{ability}}}|{{{ability}}}]] ]

[[Category:{{{ability}}}]]

• Template:Set Defense

Weapons

Hand Cannon
File:Gun icon.jpg		RNG			ROF			AOE			POW
		12			1			Template:-			12
Echo
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		2				7				13
Template:Magical Damage

Spells

{{Category: Template:Arcane BoltTemplate:DominationTemplate:Force FieldTemplate:TelekinesisTemplate:Temporal AccelerationTemplate:Time Bomb }}[[Category: Template:Arcane BoltTemplate:DominationTemplate:Force FieldTemplate:TelekinesisTemplate:Temporal AccelerationTemplate:Time Bomb ]]

Theme Forces

• Template:Si
• Template:Gravediggers
• Template:Heavy Metal
• Template:Sons of the Tempest
• Template:Storm Division. Haley gains Immunity: Electricity in this theme.

Thoughts on Haley2

Haley2 in a nutshell

One of the most iconic casters in the faction, Haley2 brings near-unparalleled versatility onto the board. She has a strong toolbox to handle various situations.

• she is a nimble but fragile caster
• has a feat which cripples enemies
• has great spells and likes arc nodes

Depending on your gaming community, Haley2 can have a really steep or a very gentle learning curve for newcomers. If there are many experienced players in your area, they will be prepared for her since she single-handedly dominated the competitive games for many years. However, new players can often be surprised by her tricks and it can be downright frustrating to play against her for the first time.

Playing with Haley2 is all about controlling the board, taking apart your enemy piece by piece, and taking fights on your terms. To achieve that, you have great spells, a nice feat, and a large CTRL area to play around. She and her battlegroup operate with excellent FOCUS efficiency thanks to Future Sight, though her expensive spells rarely leave resources to fuel a large group of warjacks.

Spell Thoughts

• Arcane Bolt - Probably a dead spell on your list. Cygnar is not short on magical shooting and if Haley has to be tasked with Incorporeal hunting, the enemy is probably dictating the flow of battle.
• Force Field - A life-saver against many things the enemies use to dispatch a high DEF-low ARM warcaster (slams, knockdowns, and stray AoEs). Watch out as you can still be made stationary, and upkeep removal (especially Purification) can be deadly for you.
• Domination - One of the more threatening spell if your enemy has even a single, quality warjack in their list. Though it can cause hilarious moments, it has several limiting factors.
  • Its main use is for threat range manipulation. Few jacks can give up their entire movement and still pose a threat.
  • You're unlikely to be able to boost the attacks, since jacks spend FOCUS only during its activation (and possessing them happens outside of it). Sometimes your target gets boosted attack or damage rolls by default, but it happens rarely. Also watch out so that it is not tied to a bond, like Black Ivan from Harkevich, as the bond ceases under enemy control.
  • It is limited to basic attacks, so you cannot discharge a Pulse Attack on the Thunderhead, or use Thresher on Beast 09. However, you can still apply the additional effects of the weapon, like the Knockdown effect on the Renegade's Obliterator rocket to line up Magnus for assassination.
  • If you have nothing in range to hit, just simply walk out of the caster's CTRL area. This cancels Power Up/ Focus allocation, and occasionally Bonds.

• Temporal Acceleration - A pretty expensive spell that should be used on your main beatstick to secure an alpha strike.
• Time Bomb - A very expensive spell, easily capable of burning through most of your FOCUS pool, but securing a direct hit on a key target can be crippling.

Feat Thoughts

Regard this one as a tactical jamming. She plays well against lists with just a few, quality melee models (usually jacks and beasts), who are depending on delivering the alpha strike. Numerous infantry and jammers can easily overwhelm you, as there will be plenty of models that can still activate normally despite her feat. Timing and knowledge of the enemy's threat ranges is critical. Also, as the affected number of models are more or less random, simply identify the 6 most critical models in your control range that you want to cripple and regard any extra targets as a gift. Some of her key prey for her feat, Colossals and Gargantuans, are no longer affected by her feat since they can no longer be compelled to sacrifice their movement or action. This means you can no longer cripple one side of a Colossal and remain safe with a DEF13+ model from the uncrippled side whilst those shooting-oriented ones will still come gunning for you.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• She has little in the way of damage buffs.
• She was the faction's #1 competitive caster throughout Mk2 and in the first year of Mk3. Opponents tend to know her pretty well.
• Most of your spells are expensive. It is quite easy to over-extend and burn through all of her superior FOCUS pool.
• Anti-magic tricks as well as counters for arcing spells can hurt you a lot (e.g., Severius1, Garryth, anyone with Arcane Vortex or Arcane Suppression, etc.).
• She is fragile. Boosted damage rolls, electro-leaps/trick shots, Continuous Fire, or slammed/thrown models are all legitimate dangers (that latter only if they stripped Force Field from her).
• Feat does not work on Colossi/Gargantuans/Infernal Colossi.

Tricks & Tips

• When deciding where a missed AoE will scatter with Force Field you still must choose a valid direction on the blast marker - you cannot choose any angle you want.

Forfeiting 101

• You cannot charge if you must give up your Action or Movement.
• You cannot make things you could by voluntarily giving up your action or movement, if you must give them up (such as Aiming).
• Running also demands you to give up your Combat Action after your normal movement, so models affected by the feat cannot run.
• Temporal Shift has no effect on out-of-activation attacks and movements, like free strikes, Sentry or Broadside shots, Enliven and Admonition, etc.
• If you popped your feat, knock a target down. Apart from warlocks/casters, beasts/jacks and gargossals, they will be sitting ducks, as they're now forced to sacrifice both their actions and movements. Soft version of it is to turn your target around (either by Telekinesis or Domination). They can't draw LOS to you, thus, cannot charge (and possibly have to turn around to shoot). Battle Engines cannot be knocked down, so they are prime targets for Telekinesis.

List Building Advice

Strategy

Her main win condition is to frustrate the enemy and control their threat ranges so you decide who fights who and win the war piece by piece. She struggles to crack high ARM face to face, as she has very few means of buffing the raw damage of her army. Concentrate on keeping those pieces away, until you can properly deal with them. Contest/deny scenario pieces by moving models in/out of zones and flags. You can yo-yo with the enemy and your own models, so alpha striking Haley's army is anything but easy.

As for her personal safety, keep in mind her extreme fragility. In this regard, she is pretty much akin to Amon1 - though basically DEF18 against charges. Cavalry models with access to attack roll buffs or boosted MAT8+ hits will make short work of her. Always have a Shield Guard nearby to fend off stray Disruptor bows from Eyriss, or flame AoEs in case you don't have Force Field up.

Unlike Haley1, this incarnation lacks direct unit support spells, and she doesn't have battlegroup spells either. Self-supporting units and a few jacks are usually the way to go with Haley2. This tip is worth your consideration, no matter what theme you play.

Theme Thoughts

Various themes
Haley likes these support models, which are in all/most themes:

• Journeyman Warcaster - An Arcane Shield on your most precious model. Put a Sentinel under his care to have a readily available Shield Guard.
• Captain Arlan Strangewayes - Extra focus so that Haley's reserves can go elsewhere instead of allocating to jacks.
• Squire - The extra FOCUS is crucial for your spells, while Future Sight + Arcane Realignment offers great safety on delivering your offensive spells. The additional 2" CTRL range allows you to catch models under your feat with a bit more safety.
• Field Mechaniks - Repairs and contesting bodies at a bargain price! They are also gobbers, so they give you access to Malvin & Mayhem. A min unit with a Battle Priest is generally a better investment than a max unit.

Storm Division
As a fragile caster she benefits from the electo-immunity of Storm Division, and the high accuracy and damage of the theme's units and solos mean they don't need as many buff spells. Haley loves low model count lists, and the high quality solos and battle engines here lend themselves to exactly that playstyle.

• A Stormclad marshalled by a Stormblade Captain can be turned into a serious threat with support from Temporal Acceleration and Empower. The Crush order combined with the extra threat and volume of attack from TA + 2 focus to buy or boost and further threat extension via TK should make it wreck things like no tomorrow. Afterwards it gets to reposition 5" thanks to the drive. With the Hermit in tow you can even shrug of free strikes on your reposition movement, then lock the target in place with Haley's feat. This is especially potent on colossals, which is combo is poised to take on.
• Silver Line Stormguard - They are a nice little screen for your heavy hitters thanks to Polarity Wall and Desperate Pace from the Captain, provide your Death Archon with corpses and can debuff enemy warjacks.
• Savio - He hits like a ton of bricks. Use TK to get him further forward. Gives you access to Graciela if you don't have a Toro on Nemo, but you should probably not take her without a Toro to protect her.
• Dreyfus1 is very similar to Savio in this regard and also provides a defence buff against shooting.
• Dreyfus & Flubbin, Storm Patrol - Another heavy hitter, one with Flight no less. They also give you access to Malvin & Mayhem, but restrict you from taking Dreyfus1 and cannot be a requisition.
• Gwen Keller - Another hard hitting solo, who also bring control effects with her grenades. Handing out Force Barrier to other Storm Knights protects them from shooting.
• Nemo4 - Nemo is an excellent piece for her, bringing a boostable gun to do work with, especially since they roll 4 die drop-lowest on atatck rolls ih he boosts and get tuned up by his mechaniks, and being the biggest thing you can TK around. He also lets you take a budget merc heavy that turns into a Cygnar model so you can but TK and Temporally Accelerate it and the get a +2 STR bonus from Lightning Shroud as well. He can bring in a non -haracter solo, which can be a Storm Blade Captain, Trench Buster or Gun Mage Captain Adept.
  • Freebooter - With Jury Rigged it becomes a SPD 7 warjack, meaning it reaches a 18" threat range with Locomotion, TK and TA, and with the Chain Attack, TA and Lightning Shroud it has 4 initials at POW 16. There is hardly a better way to spend just 9 points. It's an absolute steal! The main drawback it has is its MAT value of 6, but Haley has multiple ways to hit-fix and Silverline can help you out, too.
  • Toro - Higher Price, but more hitting power and Counter Charge. Also lets you take Graciela and she has a durable model to Safe the Princess to.
  • Stormclad - The hardest hitting non-colossal jack you can give Nemo to benefit from all the ways Haley and Nemo can polish a warjack. Also has Accumulator online in this theme.

• Death Archon - TK is their favourite spell and they are amazing models in their own right. They are experts at clearing chaff, which can bog down Haley's low-model-count lists, and the Chain attack gives you another control element.
• Malvin & Mayhem - TK again for more threat range, and Haley loves having a heavy in her list she does not need to fuel so she can continue spell slinging.
• She likes a damage buff from either Gabriel Throne or the Hermit. Do note that you can TK the hermit a few inches forward, the guy really loves all manners of threat extension.

Battlegroup

File:Thorn.jpg

Thorn is her pet warjack that she can take in any theme.

Light

• Thorn - Thorn is her pet warjack with an arc node and she can take him any theme. He is a very cost-effective upgrade over a Lancer. You should have a really good reason NOT to take it.
• Hunter - With Haley's huge control range, the extended CTRL RNG of the hunter isn't necessary, but Temporal Acceleration on a hunter and a single allocated focus can usually tear a heavy warjack to pieces from (typically) well outside retaliation range. Two boosted hunter shots a turn kills a Khador heavy in 3 turns on average rolls, or leaves it crippled beyond use.

Heavy

• Avenger - Good melee game and the effect on it's weapon are great, but the cannon with it's auto-knockdown can be downright annoying. Knock beasts and/or jacks down with the cannon (a big AOE of auto knockdown is always fun) then pop Haley's feat.
• Centurion - Great melee game and not able to be charged if you're smart. Telekinesis can help get this otherwise slow monster up the table and Temporal Acceleration can give his high P+S spear another swing.
• Hammersmith - With TA and the Chain Attack it has 4 initial attacks to do work with. It's main problem is it's puny SPD value of 4, which TA and TK fix very nicely. Once it gets it's hands on something, the combination of Beat Back and Follow Up mean it can actually dig very deeply into enemy lines with just initials alone and then buy attacks to flail on something your opponent though save from a heavy. Future Sight and MAT 7 makes it very focus efficient in the process.
• Ironclad - It hits decently hard for its price and knocks enemies down. It's also one point faster than a Hammersmith.
• Reliant - Hits almost as hard as an Ironclad, but has Accumulator and a useful gun for just one point more.
• Stormclad - 2" reach with high melee power makes this one a favored battlegroup member, especially in the Storm Division theme due to the Accumulator rule. Its threat range with telekinesis and temporal acceleration is 14", which works well with your feat.
• Thunderhead - Expensive, but this version of Haley runs him better than anyone else as he can make great use of any threat range extension and TK can be very useful to untangle him to let him use his Pulse. She can only take him in Storm Division or Heavy Metal, that's where she is most likely to be played anyway.

Colossal

• Hurricane - A much more durable Arc Node with respectable hitting power, plus another means of control thanks to its slamming Storm Emitters. It is prone to jamming (since it cannot use its arc node then), so defend it adequately from chaff infantry. Temporal Acceleration on this Colossal will also mean an additional Storm Emitter attack. Knocking Down/Slamming three targets a turn with the Storm Emitters can be devastating.

Other

Trivia

• Released in Warmachine: Apotheosis (2005)
• Just like Haley1's Temporal Barrier spell, Haley2's Temporal Shift feat had been toned down gradually throughout the years:
  • At the start of Mk2 it affected everyone in her control range, and it let you decide the order of activation of your opponent's army. You'd do stuff like force them to first activate the combat units that were blocked in, then the other combat units, then finally the support models were activated last when it was too late to buff anything.
  • Mid Mk2 the "choose how your opponent gets to play their army" part was removed.
  • Mid Mk3 it was reduced from everyone in control range, to d3+5 models
  • Although not directly nerfed, since October 2021 Gargantuans/Colossals can no longer be forced to sacrifice movement or action...the one thing her feat is trying to do.