Catan Longest Road rules: breaks, ties, loops and branches

What counts as the Longest Road

The Longest Road card is worth 2 victory points, and it changes hands more often than any other points in the game. Most arguments about it come from three questions: how to count, what breaks a road, and what happens in a tie.

The official definition is a continuous road connecting two intersections, made of at least five road pieces, not interrupted by another player’s pieces, and longer than anyone else’s. The first player to build one takes the card. After that, someone has to build a strictly longer road to take it away.

How to count: branches and loops

Count the longest single path you can trace without using any piece twice. A branch does not add to it: a fork of six pieces with a three-piece spur is still a road of six, or whatever the longest way through the fork is.

Loops do count. The rules say it directly: on Catan a circle is a hexagon, and six road pieces around one hex count as six. A loop with a tail counts the whole loop plus the tail, as long as you can trace it in one pass.

It helps to count out loud with a finger on the board, from one end to the other. If two people count different numbers, one of them is counting a branch.

Can a settlement break a road?

A rival’s settlement or city breaks it. Your own does not. If another player builds a settlement on a free intersection in the middle of your road, the road is now two shorter roads, and each is counted on its own.

• Your own settlement or city on your road: no break. The road runs through it.
• A rival’s settlement or city: a break, even if it was there before you built around it.
• A rival’s road crossing near yours: no break. Roads cannot cross on the same edge, and a road beside yours changes nothing.
• A rival’s knight, in Cities & Knights: a break. Knights stand on intersections and cut roads the way settlements do.

The rival still has to follow the building rules: their settlement must be two edges from every other building and connected to one of their own roads. That is why a road with no open intersections along it is safe.

What happens when the Longest Road is broken

After a break, recount everyone’s roads. The official FAQ gives three cases:

1. If the holder still has a road that qualifies, alone or tied with someone, they keep the card.
2. If one other player now has the longest qualifying road, that player takes the card.
3. If nobody qualifies, or several players tie for the longest and the holder is not one of them, nobody gets it. The card is set aside until one player leads alone.

Case 3 surprises people. Two players tied at seven do not share the card, and neither of them gets it until one builds an eighth piece.

Who gets Longest Road in a tie?

The current holder. Matching their length does nothing; you need one more piece. If you hold the card with seven and someone builds their seventh, you keep it. The only way a tie takes the card away is the broken-road case above, where the holder drops below the tied leaders.

This is also one of the rules groups most often get wrong: many tables hand the card to whoever reached the length last.

Can you lose it on someone else’s turn?

Yes. The card moves the moment the condition is met, on anyone’s turn. A rival who builds a longer road on their turn takes it then. A rival who builds a settlement that cuts your road can take it from you then too, or knock it off the table. A Road Building card can swing it in one go.

A cut road can sometimes be repaired with a bypass: a detour around one or more hexes that joins the two halves without passing the rival’s building. It costs more roads, but it is often cheaper than losing 2 points.

Longest Trade Route in Seafarers

Seafarers replaces the card with the Longest Trade Route. Roads and ships count together in one line, with one rule that catches people out: a road and a ship only join at one of your own settlements or cities. Where a road meets a ship at an empty intersection, the route stops. A rival’s building cuts a trade route just as it cuts a road. Our Seafarers online guide covers where to try it.

When to chase Longest Road

Chase it when you have plenty of wood and brick and nowhere good to settle, or when it would win you the game. Two points for five roads is a fair price early, a poor one in a four-player race where everyone wants it. A road that also reaches a new settlement spot pays twice.

Defend it by leaving no open intersection along it, or by sitting a settlement on the spot a rival wants. Our strategy guide covers when roads beat cities.

In Hearthsea the game counts every route for you and says when the card moves: “Isla takes the longest road from Sam (8).” That ends the counting arguments.

Questions people ask

Sources

The rules come from the publisher’s FAQ, read on 25 October 2026:

1. CATAN base game FAQ: Longest Road, breaks and the three cases
2. CATAN: Seafarers rulebook (2025)
3. Colonist: Seafarers rules

Keep reading

• Catan rules people get wrong
• How to win at Catan-style games: a strategy guide
• Play Seafarers online free: every option in 2026

CATAN is a registered trademark of Catan GmbH. Hearthsea is an independent game and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Catan GmbH or its publishers. Other game names belong to their owners and are used here only to describe and compare.