Background
In C&K, it is possible for your road length to decrease. If you have the longest road, and it gets shortened (by the Diplomat progress card or by an opponent's knight), what happens to the Longest Road card? The base game rules say the following:
The first player to build a continuous road (not counting forks) of at least 5 road segments receives the special card "Longest Road." If another player succeeds in building a longer road than the one created by the current owner of the "Longest Road" card, they immediately take the special card (and its 2 victory points).
And the C&K rules say:
Knights ... can be used to break another player's "longest road..." If the red player places his knight at 'B,' it will break blue's road, shortening his road for purposes of determining the longest road.
Consider the following situations
Assume the rest of the other players' road lengths are too short to matter. In all cases, Player 1 starts with the longest road:
a) Player 1's maximum road length is 7, Player 2's is 5.
b) Player 1's maximum road length is 7, Player 2's is 6.
c) Player 1's maximum road length is 7, Player 2's is 7.
d) Player 1's maximum road length is 5, Player 2's is 5.
e) Player 1's maximum road length is 5, Player 2's is 3.
If in all scenarios Player 1's road is shortened by 1 length, who ends up with the Longest Road card?
a) Player 1's road is still longer, so Player 1 keeps the Longest Road card.
b) The two players are now tied, so Player 1 keeps the Longest Road card.
c) Player 1's road is now shorter, so Player 2 takes the Longest Road card.
d) Player 1's road is now shorter, so Player 2 takes the Longest Road card. NOTE: Player 1's road length fell below the 5-length threshold of earning the Longest Road card in the first place. But Player 2 still has a road of length 5, so there's no question: Player 2 takes the Longest Road card.
e) What happens now? Does the Longest Road card get set aside, belonging to no player, or does Player 1 retain the card because no other player has (direct quote from the rules) "succeed[ed] in building a longer road than the one created by the current owner of the 'Longest Road' card?"
Scenario e)
According to what is written in the base rules, a player must take the Longest Road card for themselves in order for another player to lose the Longest Road card. There is no mechanism for the Longest Road card exiting the game because there is no way for road lengths to shorten, and thus no way for no player to have a maximum road length of less than five after any player has gained the Longest Road card. The C&K rules do not explicitly specify whether or not the Longest Road card stays in play. They simply say that knights can affect the length of a road; the Diplomat card rules also do not mention anything of use here.
The interpretation that my friends and I have settled on is that Player 1 retains the Longest Road card until another player takes it away by having a longer road, regardless of whether or not Player 1's road length is still above 5. However, Catan Universe seems to disagree with us on this one...
Does anyone have an official ruling for this? Thanks!
