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If I have 6 roads that go all around a single hex tile, they are a continuous uninterrupted road (assuming none of my opponents interrupts it with their settlements/cities). But, can I continue this 6-piece road and create a 7-piece continuous road by building a road that goes out of this hex tile? Here's an image of what I'm talking about:

Is this a valid 7-piece continuous road?

3
  • 1
    Do you realize the road doesn't need to be built in any particular order? A common way of getting longest road is by connecting existing roads.
    – ikegami
    Commented May 9, 2014 at 14:56
  • @ikegami, of course, but I was just interested in this particular corner case, since it isn't covered explicitly by the rules and it was a topic of multiple discussions among my friends.
    – stojadin
    Commented May 9, 2014 at 15:11
  • I take it this question isn't "Can I build this road?" but "Will all of the road segments count towards Longest Road?"
    – Acccumulation
    Commented Mar 6, 2019 at 19:47

6 Answers 6

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Yes.

Say you start with the following:

           _
     _ _ /   \
           _ /

We all agree that's 7 segments long. It makes no sense that adding a segment would make it shorter, so the following can't possibly be 6 segments long:

           _
     _ _ /   \
         \ _ /

Therefore, it must be 8, and your example must be 7.

The rules indicate that you count the number of roads in the longest branch. In your example, there are six on both the right and left branch, for a total length of seven.

6
  • I had exactly the same reasoning as you, but then I went through the official FAQ that says: Roads - Is a chain of individual road pieces that goes all around a terrain hex a closed continuous road? Yes, because both sides of each individual road piece border on another road piece. and got confused by the term closed.
    – stojadin
    Commented May 9, 2014 at 15:20
  • 2
    Your example isn't a closed loop, but it's still a continuous road. I don't know why they mention and describe the concept of a closed loop. Maybe it matters in an expansion?
    – ikegami
    Commented May 9, 2014 at 15:27
  • 2
    @stojadin, I agree that could be seen as misleading. There is no such thing as a "closed" road in Settlers.
    – GendoIkari
    Commented May 9, 2014 at 16:26
  • 1
    I asked a friend which is quite familiar with all the Catan games, and she doesn't know of any circumstances where closed loops or that "both sides of each individual road piece border on another road piece" are relevant. This is a mystery.
    – ikegami
    Commented May 11, 2014 at 16:01
  • 7
    "Closed" roads matter in the case of the Diplomat card in the C&K expansion, which lets you remove an opponents open road. A road in a closed loop as described above could not be removed by the Diplomat.
    – BJ Homer
    Commented May 14, 2014 at 2:35
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I wanted to add this as a comment, but I don't have the rep yet.

There's one other very similar configuration that new players seem to have trouble deciphering and often count incorrectly. 

    _
_ /   \ _
  \ _ /

The mistake I see being made is avoiding counting the loop in favor of covering the most distance between end points which results in 5 connected roads if taking the top or bottom path rather than the 7 described by ikegami with one of the roads jutting out from the loop.

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  • 19
    And I add: this never counts as 8
    – Alfonso Nishikawa
    Commented Aug 14, 2014 at 19:43
11

given the nature of the hex grid, and the way loops count,

A  _
  / \
  \_/ 6

   _          _   
B / \_     C / \_ 
  \_/ 7      \_/ 7
               \

   _           _    
D / \_     E _/ \_  
  \_/ 7       \_/ 7 
  /

      _             _    
F   _/ \_      G   / \_  
  _/ \_/ \_        \_/ \_ 
                     \_

A is a circle - you can only count each chunk once.
B is is a circle with a spike. You start counting at the spike, and end when you loop back.
C is similar - you can count either the second spike, or the return to the base of the first spike, but not both
D is 7 - you ignore one spike or the other, because if you go spike to spike, you get 6 the long way. E is like D - only one spike counts.
F, you ignore the either the bottom or the top of the loop - and get 9 either way
G you will ignore the one in the middle - and get 10 - because the spurs are longer (2 and 3) than the one in the middle.

0

Is this a valid 7-piece continuous road?

Yes.

Long answer:

enter image description here

I hope this examples will be useful.

Old ASCII art

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  • I appreciate if downvotes write some comment to know how to improve my answer (or completely delete it).
    – Alfonso Nishikawa
    Commented Oct 7, 2016 at 21:51
  • 1
    I didn't downvote, but your ASCII art is failing completely on my phone which could explain things.
    – Philip Kendall
    Commented Oct 8, 2016 at 11:27
  • I didn't downvote, but it makes no sense to start counting anywhere but at an end or after a fork, so 1) the first three attempts are noise, and 2) you left some possibilities on the table.
    – ikegami
    Commented Mar 6, 2019 at 19:04
  • Thank you, @ikegami. You and many others are very intelligent and understand everything from intuition, but the explanation is "didactic". My answer does not give "the rule", but gives the tool to reason. Starting from an end is a rule of thumb, but if there is a more complex loop it could be that starting from and end to other end gives a shorter path than finishing (or starting) inside the loop.
    – Alfonso Nishikawa
    Commented Mar 7, 2019 at 12:25
0

Yes you can. But it must continue a straight path.

This does not count _
/ _
_/ 7
/

This counts 

_

_ / \ _ \ _ /

0

You cannot add in multiple exit points on a single hexagonal shape.

You can exit from a single point of entry or You can continue a hexagonal shape after completing one full circle in both directions to extend the road further.

There are many rules in Catan, and this one can be debated but we have played this way several times.

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