Scaper of the Week 27 - 1Mmirg

This SotW will be a sweet reveal for us all. I'm sure I'm not alone in knowing very little of the man behind the Shakespeare avatar.

He has made worthy contributions to the community with the Index to Excellent Threads and HS Resources and
Positive, Productive Posting.

Read on to discover more of our latest spotlit Scaper!



Our twenty-seventh 'Scaper of the Week is
1Mmirg

Who are you?
Vernon Dickson, though I often just go by “V”

My family

Who or what is your avatar and how did you come up with your username?
My avatar is Shakespeare (or represents him anyway).
My username goes back to my old D&D days. My friend has a powerful fighter, Grimm, and I made a wizard to match (and turned his name around), thus Mmirg. The “1” is there because when I first signed up, I forgot my password (d’oh!), so I relogged on as Grimm1 backwards. I kind of liked that, the inverse of Grimm One.

A past Halloween—the family went as ghosts and witches; I was just dead, I guess... (Honestly, minus the make-up, this is all old clothes from my high school days.) I don’t take many pictures, other than family ones.

Age:
34

Occupation?
English professor

Allegiance and why?
Vydar. Got to stick with the V . Seriously I love the flexibility and flavor of the ranged agents. [Still can’t believe that Rev got me an Agent Skahen last year from GenCon—the first Vydar exclusive.] And I’ve been advocating for more sci-fi Scape for a while now… (I’ve got to get time to revisit that thread now with Wave 9 on the horizon!)
Ullar was my first choice for a while—and might become mine again if the vipers get a good ranged squad some day. I play all the generals and currently I’ve been playing a lot of Jandar (Knights and Nilf armies) and Utgar (love all the flavorful options in Utgar).


Here you can see me playing a Vydar team (“Agent” Drake is hiding out, about to make a run into my wife’s castle, to the left). My daughter is playing Q9. This is several years ago. We were playing where you had to capture and return to your own castle the artifact from the player on your left, while defending from the player on the right—and being able to get back into your castle safely.

When did you get into HeroScape and why?
Christmas 2004. I saw an ad (or just the game on the shelf?) and thought, “That looks cool and like something our family could play together as well.” My wife read my mind (or I told her, more likely) and she got it for me. We’ve played it to death ever since. She’s only regretted that purchase a half dozen times (give or take several dozen more). My daughter started at 5 and quickly knew the cards backwards and forwards and remembered details I had forgotten.

Here is one more shot of the last map (different angle). I loved the small forward towers overlooking the bridges. They had glyphs in them, so letting them fall was costly, giving your opponent an advantage in attacking your castle, but holding them was equally tough.

Favorite aspect of HeroScape and why?
The “infinite variety” (name that Shakespearean play ).
I love that I can play kicked-back games with my nephews with crazy rule variants or thematic scenarios with my family or thoughtful 1 v 1s with local players at a tourney or use it to reach out to the boys in our youth group (who claim it as the “sickest game ever”).
I love to build maps, try out different armies, throw in small variations, test out others’ scenarios, try maps from Scapers, etc. There just isn’t an end to the options—I love that.

Here’s a map we played with my nephews a while back. My guess is that we had 4-6 players and were using rescue units (you have to step on Brandar glyphs to take control of the units adjacent to the glyphs—they are out of play until that happens). This is an eight foot table and a few sets, though nothing elegant or truly mammoth like Dr. Weirdscaper's creations.

Favorite Hero and why?
No idea. Seriously.
I love the heroes and play lots of them, but there are just so many great units. A few, though, stand out for me, for a variety of reasons: Nilfheim, Venoc Warlord, Sir Gilbert, Agent Skahen, Alastair MacDirk.
If someone had a gun to my head and a lie detector strapped on me, my answer would be Krug—and I’d be praying I was right...

Krug, about to play the role of the Brute Squad. (This was a recent game between my daughter and goodlatte out on my back patio.)

Favorite Unique Squad and why?
Marro Warriors, closely followed by the Krav and the Nakitas. Tagawa Samurai and Ninjas are in the mix for me here as well.

Favorite Common Squad and why?
Currently, Knights. At the beginning it was the Gruts, especially the Arrow Gruts. I also really enjoy the Minions.

My Knights have pushed the Greeks/Romans off the Little Ramparts, but goodlatte’s Parmenio will lead a pretty good comeback, until, that is, I bring out the Tagawa Samurai for clean-up (with Finn’s Spirit on them).

Favorite Special ability and why?
This one is hard. Some top picks: Toughness, Bonding, Mindlink, Counterstrike, Bloodlust, Vanish, and Poisonous Acid Breath. The Queglix Gun is pretty intense, too, I have to admit. My original favorites were Fire Line and Chomp. (Can you see the whole Arrow Grut army coming into focus, yet? I love that army.)
Today I’ll say Overextend—love those critical (often overlooked) extra plays by Alastair and Eldgrim.

A Florida “Chomper” in the wild (they are really incredibly passive really, well, unless you catch one at the wrong time…)

Anything you'd change about the game - a unit, rule, or mechanic?
I agree with those that think Toughness should work against special attacks. I love the G’nators’ sculpt. In early pictures, etc., they were the units that I anticipated most; I was dying to have them. Now, when I play them, they are the ones dying...

You can see my sons G’nators, off the map (dead), as they all too often are . This was a great map—we modified (basically doubled) Dignan’s “If you can’t take the heat” to make a 4-player map. It was my son’s (4) second game. He needed some help, but he’s catching on.

What do you enjoy most about Heroscapers.com?
There is just so much here. (If you don’t believe me, go and check the Index ….)
Seriously, though, what really make Scapers amazing are the Scapers. I’m often impressed by the generosity, good spirit, level of discussion, and respect that (generally) is here. I have never been on a site like this one. It is simply amazing. (And the fact that all of this is connected to just so much stuff, so many resources, well, that makes this, for me, the best site of its kind.)

Favorite HeroScape moment:
When my daughter beats me because she has outthought me in some way (such as remembering a minor rule or a fact/ability that I overlooked). I love those moments.

My wife and daughter pounded on me here—it was a mod of Aaryglynn, we added snow and ice over the whole map, and made the castle defender (me) have to start on the ground behind/below the castle. Fun stuff—having to climb up to defend the castle as the enemy flew in at me. Great map (with or without the snow, mind you).

How often do you play Heroscape?
Until the last couple of months, I could have said “every week for the last four years.” Sadly, we’ve just been busier than usual this last semester and it’s been more like every other week.

I am working on training up a new generation of players. I’ll be playing weekly again soon, very soon .

How would you define your playing style?
I am a bit slow; I’ll admit that. I like to think things through. However, I hate to play a “sit and wait” game (even when it might be smart). So, while I am cautious and thoughtful, I take risks to move the game along and to press my opponent (and my luck), sometimes more than I should. I don’t have an amazing win ratio in tourneys because of this, but I always have a load of fun and keep things moving on the tables.

Another board game you enjoy and why?
RISK 2210—so much going on this is version of RISK. Good times!
Honestly, though, I love board games and play lots of them, whenever I can. Some favorites: Most any of the other RISKs (love them!), Catan, Carcassonne, Pillars of the Earth, Betrayal, Warcraft the Boardgame, Alhambra, and the list goes on. We finally got Last Night on Earth (for our anniversary on the 24th). I can’t wait to try it out. (Have to wait just a few more days…)

Three true things and one lie about yourself:
My wrestling nickname was “Spider”
I pulled the fire alarm in 4th grade (trying to understand how it worked) and promptly skipped 5th grade
I’ve had three scholarly articles published in national literary journals and one book
My birthday is Christmas Eve (December 24), my second son was born August 24, and my anniversary may be Shakespeare’s birthday (April 24)—hey, who took my Scaper of the Week #24?!

Other interests?
Well, Shakespeare, obviously . Teaching, writing, volleyball, service (church/community), small home improvement projects (especially landscaping/ gardening), and most of all time with family, especially family game time .

My family and I enjoy scenario-drive maps. Here’s one where you begin with only a small group (I think it was 200 pts.), but the map is divided into terrain-specific segments with a dragon and supporting units you can rescue by claiming (and holding) a Brandar near them. Charos has left his tree domain by this point, Braxas and her Microcorp have left their water domain. This is before the Tundra set, so Nilfheim has a central rock castle ruin. We play for fun. Good times with this map.

What message do you have for the community?
I recently saw a sig line (can’t recall whose…): “Treat this community as you would like to be treated.” I think that says it all. (Some of this may be worth adding as well.)
I love this place, the people, the amount of generous time given to support and develop and contribute to this site and its many resources and discussions.
Respect each other; recognize that while we’d like others to think and act just like we do, that just isn’t going to happen. Respect each other for who they are and look for commonality, not division; try to see things from someone else’s perspective. Enjoy the site, quirks, goofs, and all.
I’ll be playing for years to come; hope to see you all around then.

Any Heroscapers member you'd really like to play against?
Any of you all, honestly.
Of the 20-30 people I’ve played Scape with, only a small group are on this site—and I’d be happy to play them again any time, too. I dream of being able to do GenCon someday (or of going to one of Rÿchean’s tourneys or something of that caliber). I’d love to play with Rev and Cavalier (the two whose kindness and generosity brought me out of lurking for years on this site), with Jim and Grungebob (who have also been incredibly kind to me), or with great perhaps lesser known members like Onion Knight, Sphere, Ryougabot, keglo, Kroc, and many more, as well as with more well known members like Rÿchean and Jexik and UPC and, of course, truth. I’d love to play with markwars and bunjee, TNT and Agent Minivann, ninthdoc and skyknight, S1R_ART0R1US and the excellent Week at Scapers crowd, ollie and everyone in the AAoS, LongHeroscaper and H_E_H, rdhight and Necroblade (can’t believe we never connected here in FL :/), and everyone else I’ve forgotten. I’d like to play against, well, you.
Let me know if you are ever in sunny South Florida.

We’ll pull out the Scape, have a BBQ, and enjoy an afternoon on the patio.

Who do you pick for the next 'Scaper of the Week?
Since I know, basically, none of you, this is incredibly hard. Everyone I’ve listed above is on my short list. But since I’ve repeated the phrase “I am the Pumpkin King” dozens of times (and have been impressed [such as here] by our Scaper bearing the name), how about meeting our own Pumpkin_King?