Helium Party Balloons

It's crowded at the top. Photo: B. Liu

Overview: Cornerstone Essential is a bit like Jenga crossed with Carcassonne — it combines the dexterity and balance of a building game with strategic path-building and blocking other players. Get to the highest position before the tower topples! (Note: Cornerstone Essential is a smaller, somewhat reworked version of the earlier game Cornerstone.)

Players: 2 to 4

Ages: 8 and up

Playing Time: 30 to 60 minutes

Retail: $39.95

Rating: An excellent game from Good Company Games, a smaller game company.

Who Will Like It? Fans of building/stacking games like Jenga will probably enjoy this, but so will fans of medium-weight strategy games. I found that playing with my civil engineer dad, brother and sister-in-law made for an intensely fun experience. Cornerstone (the original version, which is slightly different) was also a Mensa Select winner in 2009, so it has a good pedigree.

This is where it begins. Photo: Jonathan Liu

Theme:

Build a tower. Climb to the top.

That’s pretty much the theme of the game, and since you’re quite literally building a tower and moving your little wooden person around on the tower, I’d say the gameplay captures the theme of the game pretty well.

Building blocks: two of each size, 1 through 6. Photo: Jonathan Liu

Components:

It takes a steady hand … Photo: Jonathan Liu

Here’s what you get:

• 1 cornerstone starting block (seen above)
• 48 building blocks (12 each in four colors, shown above)
• 4 wooden climber tokens
• 2 dice
• 8 move tokens (basically little wooden discs)
• 5 cloth bags (one for each color, and one for the extra pieces)

The cloth bags are thin canvas with a simple drawstring — serviceable but nothing special, and the dice are simple wooden dice with rounded corners.

The building blocks are made of individual 1-by-1 cubes which are attached together in a checkerboard pattern. From what I’ve read they’re stuck together with dowels and glue, and are supposed to withstand a good amount of dropping and falling without breaking apart. One thing to note is that the pieces aren’t all perfectly aligned — some of them are just a little crooked here and there, but it actually makes for more interesting play as you try to build with the imperfections.

Gameplay:

The game begins with the cornerstone and all the climbers on the table. On each turn, you roll the dice to see what piece you’ll get to use. You can build with a piece based on either one of the numbers rolled (the number of cubes in the piece corresponds to the numbers 1 through 6 on the dice). If you roll doubles, you get to choose whatever piece you want; but if you don’t have any pieces corresponding to the numbers you rolled, then you have to discard a piece and don’t get to build.

Two other rules pertaining to building: first, your building piece can only touch the table on the first round — after that, everything must be supported off the table. So the way people build during the first round can be pretty critical, either building a wide support for the tower, or starting off narrow and probably shortening the game with a collapse. Also, when you build you may not trap other climbers; each climber must have at least one space to move to (more on this later).

After you build, then you move your climber if you want. A climber can move any number of spaces on a turn, but with the following restrictions: first, you may only move on neutral-colored spaces and your own spaces. You may not move through other climbers. You may only climb up or down one cube high at a time. (The table counts as one continuous space so you can climb down to the table and back up somewhere else.)

Each player also gets two move tokens which can be used for three types of special moves: to build with any piece in your reserve; to cross over any color and/or through any other climbers; to jump up or down a 2-level wall. Of course, with only two of these tokens you need to use them sparingly because they are extremely valuable at the end of the game.

The game ends either when everyone runs out of blocks or if the tower collapses. If the tower doesn’t collapse, the player at the highest elevation wins — in the case of a tie, the player with the highest colored block in the tower wins. In the case of a collapse, the player who caused the collapse automatically loses, and the highest remaining player wins. In case of a tie, the player with the highest number of cubes left in their pile wins.

There are a couple variations, too. For a two player game, each player gets two colors and the score is the combined elevation of their two climbers. There is also a team play variant, and a more difficult Challenge option in which your block cannot touch any other player’s colored blocks when building (though you can always build on the table).

Now, a note about trapping: I’ve checked with Matthew Mette about the trapping rules. He said the intent is that you can’t completely trap somebody — for instance, in a six-sided hole with no exits — but you can build so that they don’t have any available moves yet, as long as it is possible for them to build their way out or use a token to get out. When we played (before we got this clarification) we made the point that the player needed to be able to move without using a token, but then we could move a meeple and block them that way. Either way, you can set your own house rules for how much you can block another player, as long as everyone agrees before the game begins.

Here’s a little video I made of one tower’s construction:

Conclusion:

When I first heard of Cornerstone Essential I thought, hey, that looks kind of cute. I thought it would be something simple that maybe I’d play with my little kids (and I have in fact played with my 7- and 4-year-olds, though with simplified strategies). But this past week my family came to visit, and we discovered that Cornerstone can be extremely challenging, particularly when three of the four players are civil engineers. My brother loved building cantilevered supports, hoping the next player would cause a collapse. We also discovered how tricky it could be trying to make a path to get up higher, and trying to decide when it was worth using a precious move token.

We also tried playing on both my felt-covered card table and the wooden dining table, and they offered very different experiences. The fuzzy surface was definitely more of a challenge because the tower was just a bit more wobbly, and the hard wooden surface allowed for more precision. We usually ended a game because of running out of pieces rather than causing a collapse, but perhaps playing with kids (or non-engineers) might make the game more volatile.

I thought Cornerstone Essential was a very fun, satisfying game. It’s not a heavyweight strategy game, but is actually comparable to something like Carcassonne in terms of building paths and maneuvering despite various restrictions. It’s definitely a game that I’d recommend for both casual and serious game players — it’ll get you out of your seat, which just might save your life.

Cornerstone Essential is available from Amazon (with limited stock) or from Good Company Games.

Wired: A perfect blend of dexterity and strategic planning.

Tired: Imperfections in building pieces might not be appreciated by everyone.

Disclosure: GeekDad received a review copy of this game.

Nick Frost and Simon Pegg in a scene from "Paul." Here, they're geeking out at Comic-Con

Nick Frost and Simon Pegg long ago established their geek cred.

First, Pegg and Frost co-starred in the “zomedy” Shaun of the Dead in 2004. Three years later, Pegg co-starred with Frost in the cop-action movie spoof Hot Fuzz; Pegg also co-wrote both films. More recently, Pegg voiced the character Reepicheep in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and he played “Young Scotty” in the Star Trek back-story film from 2009, Pegg’s highest profile role to date. He’ll also star in the planned sequel. Frost, also a sketch comic, has acted in the BBC Two science fiction sitcom Hyperdrive, narrates UK’s Channel 4 reality show Supernanny and is perhaps best known for playing Mike Watt in the British television comedy Spaced.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The British pair’s latest film, Paul, which opens today, is their homage to sci-fi fandom. The alien-themed comedy/road movie centers on two British geeks, Clive Gollings (Frost) and Graeme Willy (Pegg), who leave San Diego Comic-Con on a RV trip through the Southwest. But when they take on an unexpected passenger, an Area 51 fugitive humanoid named Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen), they find themselves completing a mission whose details Paul won’t divulge, all the while pursued by the authorities. Comedy and adventure ensues. Frost and Pegg star; they also co-wrote the screenplay. Sitting in the director’s chair was the geek-friendly Greg Mottola, who gave us Adventureland and Superbad.

I was lucky enough to catch up with Pegg and Frost, who are longtime friends, as they passed through Boston on a press tour. Drinking coffee in a hotel suite overlooking the Charles River, we began by geeking out on Peter Jackson. Both recently wrapped shooting on the Steven Spielberg–Jackson motion-capture juggernaut, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (which comes out later this year). They had spent some time hanging out at New Zealand’s “Wellywood” movie studio and FX house Weta Workshop. (A couple of years ago, researching my book Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks, I had been given a peek inside that secret Geekland. And was sworn top secrecy.) Frost and Pegg had been shown the big models from The Lord of the Rings— Cirith Ungol, Minas Morgul—by P.J. himself. I tried not to drool.

Alien probe, anyone? The CG alien Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen)

But the fact that they could name Cirith Ungol and Minas Morgul cemented their nerd integrity. As we talked, one sentiment became clear: They didn’t make Paul to make fun of those who collect comic books, wear Flash and Spider-Man T-shirts and fantasize about alien abduction (even though both characters in the film do). They come in peace, to praise geeks and do geekdom justice.

Ethan Gilsdorf: I wanted to say, as a geek, a fantasy and science fiction fan, and a gamer, I think your movie Paul hit the mark. I was there at the screening with my girlfriend and my sister we kept whispering to each other as we checked off all the inside jokes. You hit Star Wars, Star Trek, The X-Files, even The Blues Brothers. And the Steven Spielberg canon, from Close Encounters to Raiders. Even Jaws.

Pegg: It’s replete with gifts for those who know their stuff. There’s pretty broad references but there’s also a lot of little ones as well. There are plenty of smaller ones in there for the faithful.

Frost: It’s actually quite nice to know that someone who is—I’m going to use the term “uber-geek”—[the film] is not an insult. I think a secret fear of mine is that people who are uber-geeks would look at it and think its slightly broader so maybe we don’t quite like it. But it’s nice to hear that for the super geeks, you like it a lot.

[read more after the break…]

Pegg: Some of it’s like “Sci-Fi 101.” We had to make this film appeal on a broad level because it cost a lot of money, became of Paul, really. He’s expensive. It’s like hiring Will Smith, literally, to get Paul on the screen.

Gilsdorf: How much of what we see on screen was in the script? Did you improv much? Some of the sight gags we see in the background—I’m thinking the reference to Duel, [an early Steven Spielberg film] that we see in red letters on the movie marquee of that Main Street. Or the cantina music in the country and western bar.

Frost: We have to credit [director] Greg Mottola for the cantina band music in the roadhouse. He had this great ideas of having a Dixieland band playing it. We were thinking, “Oh Greg, that’s one reference too many.” But in the end we went with it. For many people it was their favorite nod, which just goes to show how much we know. We trust Greg 100 percent.

Pegg: A lot of what you see at Comic-Con we did not have in the script. The slave Leias.

Gilsdorf: I was thinking geeks might bring bingo cards that replace numbers with things like “Swooning Ewok,” “Mention of Reese’s Pieces,” “Line from Aliens.” You know, and shout “Bingo!” when they win.

Frost: Yes, great idea. [They laugh.]

Gilsdorf: Were there any scenes that didn’t make the final cut?

Promotional poster for Paul

Pegg: We did write a scene that never went in. There was a shot of Graeme and Clive in the bathroom at Comic-Con and in walks an Ewok. The Ewok is going to the toilet by standing on a bucket. Next to them, a bunch of storm troopers come in and just push him off.

Frost: Or there was another scene of we’re in a bar and it was going to be shot in a certain way that we were the only humans in the bar. And everyone else was a hobbit. It’s just our asses and these curly heads walking around, back and forth. [He gets up to demonstrate.]

Pegg: The Prancing Pony.

Gilsdorf: Lots of references to Spielberg, too. Like on that movie marquee we see towards the end of the movie, Duel. That’s a pretty obscure reference to his feature movie directing debut.

Frost: [In that shot] Easy Rider is on double bill with that, with Duel, because of it being Steven Speilberg. Obviously, Steven Spielberg is in the movie [Editor’s note/spoiler alert: Look for, or rather, listen for his cameo.] The movie is very much a tribute to him. But Easy Rider because the street we were on was the street where Jack Nicholson meets Peter Fonda. It’s Las Vegas. And we see Dennis Hopper for the first time. That’s Los Vegas, New Mexico. We got free tattoos. A tattoo artist found us at lunchtime and said, “I want to give you a tattoo.”

The time-lapse part of it kicks in at about the three-minute mark, but you should really watch the whole thing. Enjoy!

Thanks to Beth Chee at the Legoland California official Twitter account for sending this our way.