Scaper of the Month - June 2016
Posted June 7th, 2016 at 12:11 PM by HS Codex
’Scaper of the Month: Brandonwiker
Author: Fi Skirata
Profile:
Who are you really?
Brandon Wiker, male, 5'11", 185 lbs. Live in NY, have faith in Christ, although I don’t call any church “home” at the moment. I am a logical thinker and a gamer, strong with maths (although I haven't done calculus in a while!). Have my associate degree in humanities and social science, and currently attending school for computer network systems administration.
I’m probably what most people would call “boring,” I generally follow the rules and try to be responsible. No drugs, no drinking; I generally keep to myself and the family. I play tennis in the summer with my stepdad and bunch of old retired guys, and I play floor hockey a few months out of the year with some guys from a church in Newfane. I hardly keep up with news, sports, politics, or pretty much any TV show.
I’ve been married about 5 years to my beautiful wife. Met her at that church in Newfane; we were friends for a couple years before we started dating. She sleep talks: she once pushed me off of the bed and said “he fell in the river again, don't forget the cheese.” No kids, but adoption is likely by the end of this year; we have already gone through state orientation.
How old are you?
26.
What is your occupation?
Community habilitation specialist. It sounds really cool and complicated, but in short, I assist developmentally disabled people with ADLs: cleaning their homes, shopping, budgeting and exercising. Knowing and understanding the WWE is basically a requirement with the guys I support; I didn't even know who John Cena was until this job! I piloted the company’s mobile documenting system. It saved me a thousand headaches because I can type documents so much faster than I can write, and I have impossible-to-read-chicken-scratch-writing (I am a righty, but write like a lefty, or so I’m told).
I also intern at an industrial/electronics company. They sell/work on things like signal amplifiers, I/O modules, laser sensors, and other various computer and industrial parts. I am usually involved with the software on the computers—you know, the basic level troubleshooting stuff, such as Microsoft Office/Outlook, resetting user passwords, and general computer tune ups. Occasionally get to assemble and test the physical electronics in the back warehouse such as small lights and other parts I don't even know the names or functions of.
What other interests do you have?
Computer programming, sports (playing them, not watching them), video games, playing guitar.
I’m often on my Xbox One when I have free time—gamer tag Legend of Wiker, you guys should add me ... I promise I don’t bite.
As far as programming goes, I’ve only started over the last year, and I love it; learned it on my free time as a hobby, and I’ve made fairly simple things: a match two memory game, Snake (you eat the food, getting longer, and lose when you crash into yourself). I’ve even made a random number generator program for one guy I support at my job: he wanted a way to select numbers for his quick picks lottery and such.
Playing guitar has been on the back-burner for the most part. I took jazz, rock, blues, and funk guitar back when I was going to school for my first degree, but lately I only play once in a while at a karaoke night on Friday with one of the guys I support at work. I rock, I can’t jazz or funk for the life of me anymore.
What’s another board game/RPG you enjoy and why?
I’m not big on roleplaying. Monopoly and Risk are classic, I rarely take them seriously, but I do have fun. I can’t stand the politics in Risk, though.
Monopoly, I honestly like to try and nab the orange set as soon as I can, because everyone tries to hide in jail to avoid the houses and hotels in the late game. This means that they quickly need to pass by the oranges every time they get out of jail, and rolling double threes or fours to get out of jail is the cherry on top; it lands opponents on one of my orange spaces.
Heroscape:
When and how did you get into Heroscape?
I’m a pretty big fan of the Fire Emblem series (my avatar = Ike) on Nintendo consoles. In late 2010 / early 2011, I decided that I wanted to search the web for a board game that was similar to Fire Emblem, something I could bring to a friend’s house and play.
I saw a post on a site (I want to say BoardGameGeek) that mentioned Heroscape being similar to Fire Emblem. I watched a few videos on Youtube and found a ton of information here on heroscapers.com, and decided to buy the Marvel master set, seeing the familiar Marvel characters in it. Within weeks of that, I bought Rise of the Valkyrie; I was hooked from there. And here I am!
You have made several high quality maps, some of which have even been used in tournaments. Do you have a favorite, and, if so, why?
I have? They have?!? This isn't some generic question you ask every ’Scaper of the Month, is it?!? Well, I don’t know much about my maps being used ... I know my Marsh Manor was used in a tournament, which was exciting to hear.
My personal favorite is probably Puddle Jumping, I’ve played 3 – 4 games on it, and they were all a blast. One battle is recorded and on my YouTube channel; it also has the C3G custom Thor in it. I like the heavy rain rule I have on the map, where each player is forced to place 2 water tiles on the map at the end of each round. Watch the last few minutes of that YouTube battle, most of the map is filled with water tiles, I loved how it looked.
What is your favorite Uncommon Hero from either Classic or VC?
Feral Troll: regeneration is fun. I like him as clean up to make the most of regeneration and to slay wounded heroes with Blood Frenzy.
As Capsocrates said when nominating you for this month’s interview, you have been making some really awesome battle report videos. Could you tell us what made you decide to start publishing videos of your Heroscape matches?
That’s nice of him to say! Well, I think the main reason I started was because I watched most of Legoboy and Mr. Captain Canada’s battles, and I noticed they hadn’t produced a video in a while. I decided to try and fill that gap to entertain other ’scapers and try to get a decent community going on YouTube. Instead, though, I have a decent following of ’scapers in my battle thread on heroscapers.com, and YouTube is really just a tool to assist. I give figures away for free to those that predict on my games here at ’Scapers.
Community:
What do you enjoy most about Heroscapers.com?
Well, I can’t really compare it to anything else, I don’t do much in the way of online forums and social networking. The users are generally respectful and helpful, and anyone looking for almost anything Heroscape-related can find it here: customs, map designs, sales/trades, battle reports, lore, art, and probably tons more I don’t even know about. The community is much better than what I get to deal with on Xbox: "u ownlee uz3 OH P3A tihngs gh3t uhh lyf and mo0v owwt uhv ur mums bassmeant!11!??!1?1!" (That is 5 year old speak for "You only use OP things; get a life and move out of your mom's basement!")
Describe your favorite Heroscape moment.
It was sometime around Thanksgiving a couple years ago; some of the family decided they would play a game of ’Scape. We did a four player free-for-all, heroes only, on a rectangular map. I forget the name, but it used Rise of the Valkyrie and Road to the Forgotten Forest terrain, and I think it had “Wellspring” in the name.
I had Ne-Gok-Sa and Theracus in my army, so first round I put OM 1 and 2 on Theracus to fly NGS across the map so he could tie up some heroes on his OM 3. I decided to attack my sister-in-law because she was the shortest distance and I believe she had Shurrak, Syvarris, Agent Carr, and Evar Scarcarver. She had moved Agent Carr out with her first two OMs, and on my OM 3 I managed to reach Shurrak with NGS, and wouldn't you know it, Mind Shackle turns up a 20 for a steal and a lost OM for her.
The salt in the wound: in the beginning of round 2, I put OM 1 on Shurrak, won initiative, and charged in to get Syvarris and Evar lined up for the Sweeping Sword Special Attack. Boom, 5 skulls. Two blanks, Syvarris dies, three blanks, Evar dies.
I felt bad at the time, but looking back, it was such a ridiculous play. I have better odds of being killed by a sharknado than to ever see something like that again.
Is there any member of Heroscapers.com you’d really like to play against?
Realistically I probably won’t have the chance, other than online play.
I would like to get to a GenCon JUST to scape, but it's a dream at the moment. I think I would meet and take on anybody that wants to play.
Lie Detector:
- I had an afro in college back in 2008.
- I won the NY tennis state sectionals in high school.
- I once got into a fist fight with my friend for stealing the girl I wanted to ask out.
- My first car was a 1990 Jaguar.
Last Month’s Truth:
- I’ve met and shook hands with President Obama.
- I have a massive anime collection.
- I’ve never completed a personal programming project.
- I love gardening.
Three Fun Favorites:
Favorite Holiday:
Christmas
Favorite Book:
Halo: The Fall of Reach
Favorite Video Game:
Hmmm, tough choice between Super Smash Bros series and Pokémon series. Although I quickly lost interest after SSB Brawl disappointed me, I had well over 800 hours on SSB Melee, plus I went to various local tournaments over the years where I won every single 1v1 tournament I attended.
Pokémon, I easily put 100 hours into each new game. I love new releases because Smogon hasn’t come out with tier lists yet; online battling is like the Wild West. There are no rules, so people are going in with whatever they want.
Closing:
What message do you have for the ’Scaper community?
I think everyone does a great job to keep the community strong. Heroscapers is truly where ’Scape lives. The customs guys are the heart, IMO. New units absolutely keep Heroscape fresh. Oh, speaking of new units, I still want to see a green wyrmling!
Whom do you pick for the next ’Scaper of the Month?
How about Sir Heroscape, the man once called adoney? He is a super enthusiastic scaper on YouTube, I’ve seen a few of his videos, good stuff.
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Comments
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Gotta love the 'Scaper of the Month posts. Good to learn a little bit more about members in our community...and thanks for the nomination Wiker!
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Posted July 6th, 2016 at 07:31 AM by Sir Heroscape
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