Author Topic: What happens to the robber when the road he's on is not the longest one anymore?  (Read 1805 times)

ac1982

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New day, new Carcassonne doubt  ^-^ Let's say the longest road of the map is mine, and it is 10 tiles long and includes a ferry tile. What happens if later in the game my adversary moves that ferry, shortening the road, that is now not the longest one anymore? I can see two possible ways to handle this and both sounds problematic:
  • The robber stays on the road (problem: the robber may now find himself occupying a 5-tiles long road when maybe somewhere else there's a 7-tiles long road)
  • The robber moves to the road that is now the longest one (problem: what if we don't remember who closed that one? Who gets the robber tiles?)
Any help?

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=5832.0

Offline Willem

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I would say that the person who scored the longest road, gets the Robber for the longest road, even if that road gets shortened by a ferry for example.

It was the road with the most tiles, so I would say it's scenario 1  :)
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Offline corinthiens13

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The robber is given to a player after closing a road. The tile counts happens only at that time (the robber tocken placed on the road is only a reminder, what matters is only the robber tile, given to a player for a x-tiles long road).

Moving a ferry doesn't change anything, the player owning the robber tile is still the one who closed an x-tiles long road, even if that road doesn't exist anymore.

The robber tile will be given to another player only if a road is closed and it is longest than the x-tiles long road initially closed by the previous player  :yellow-meeple:

Offline corinthiens13

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So that's scenario 1, as mentioned by Willem  :yellow-meeple:

ac1982

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the robber tocken placed on the road is only a reminder, what matters is only the robber tile
Oh OK so in the scenario I described we'd just remove the robber token from the board but I'd keep the robber tile. If my adversary will close a 11-tile long road, they will get the tile and the token will get back to the board. Did I understood right?

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Even if the rules tell you to keep the Robber Baron token on the largest road, I would keep it on the scoreboard (the same as the King token). This way the tile count of the largest road and city would always be clear and feature independent.

One comment: you may extend a completed road by moving a ferry but it is not possible to shorten it, since you won't be able to move a ferry (A) in the middle of a completed road, even if you reopen one of the road ends by moving a second ferry (B). Extending a road connected to ferry B will not allow you to move ferry A as per the rules (when extending a road, you can only move the first ferry in each direction from the tile just placed).
Questions about rules? Check WICA: wikicarpedia.com

Offline kothmann

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If you are looking for an official answer, I’m sure all of the replies so far will be much more useful than my ideas.

But I want to offer option #3 as a possibly simpler and tactically interesting and exciting alternative:

The robber always moves to a completed road that is longer than the current length of the road on which the robber sits, and the player completing the road gets the robber tile.

This means that claiming the robber tile on a road that can be shortened has higher risk than claiming it on a fixed-length road, which is potentially interesting and exciting?

Is shortening a completed road possible?  I don’t play Ferries, but I read @Meepledrone’s comment to say that the scenario posed here is impossible?  Is this true even if the tile placed is itself a Ferry tile?  For example, in this image from WICA, if the Ferry at 3 were connecting the top 2 roads and the road going to the right was completed, could the Ferry be moved to the position shown in the image, thus shortening the road to the right of Ferry 3?

Offline corinthiens13

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the robber tocken placed on the road is only a reminder, what matters is only the robber tile
Oh OK so in the scenario I described we'd just remove the robber token from the board but I'd keep the robber tile. If my adversary will close a 11-tile long road, they will get the tile and the token will get back to the board. Did I understood right?

You got it right  :yellow-meeple:

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Is shortening a completed road possible?  I don’t play Ferries, but I read @Meepledrone’s comment to say that the scenario posed here is impossible?  Is this true even if the tile placed is itself a Ferry tile?  For example, in this image from WICA, if the Ferry at 3 were connecting the top 2 roads and the road going to the right was completed, could the Ferry be moved to the position shown in the image, thus shortening the road to the right of Ferry 3?

This is the image you were refering to:



If the ferry at 3 is connecting the top 2 roads and the road to the right is completed (or not) you cannot move the ferry if you extend the bottom road. In order to mov a ferry, it has to be connecting the road you extend. That is the issue.

Please check the image below, that would describe this scenario concisely. The ferry cannot move in this case, since the tile extending a road conneced to the fery lake does not include the ferry.



This means the ferry is locked in this position and cannot move. Thereferore the road cannot be shortened.
« Last Edit: March 13, 2022, 03:31:14 AM by Meepledrone »

ac1982

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I was sure as hell in our last game there was a road with ferry that could be shortened, hence the question. Probably we got it wrong but now I don't remember exactly the state of the board... I should start taking photos!
Ok, so the precise scenario I described looks to be impossible, thank you to all of you for your kind replies.

Semi-off topic question: what are some scenarios where it is possible to shorten a road?

Offline OneEyedOwl

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it should be possible very easily ferries:
e.g. we have a T-lake tile. One side has 0 roads ATM, one has 3 and one has 5 (excluding the roads on the Lake-Tile in this count). The Ferry gors from the 3-side to the 5-side. Thus a 10 long road. Then we add a Cloister with a Road(base game) to the 0-end. Because we extended the road on one end of the ferry, we get to move it. Let's say we choose to go from 3-5 to 3-0. Then this previous 10-road is now split in a 6-road and a 5-road.

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ac1982

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it should be possible very easily ferries:
e.g. we have a T-lake tile. One side has 0 roads ATM, one has 3 and one has 5 (excluding the roads on the Lake-Tile in this count). The Ferry gors from the 3-side to the 5-side. Thus a 10 long road. Then we add a Cloister with a Road(base game) to the 0-end. Because we extended the road on one end of the ferry
Wait a moment, but if the ferry goes from 3 to 5, and you connect the new tile to 0, you aren't extending the road with the ferry, are you?

Offline OneEyedOwl

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wait, the road needs to be connected to the FERRY?  :o ???

Online Meepledrone

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Yes, otherwise it cannot be moved.

ac1982

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wait, the road needs to be connected to the FERRY?  :o ???
Yes the ferry must be on the same path/road


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