If you are the first player to build a continuous road of at least 5 individual road pieces, you take this special card and place it face up in front of you. This card is worth 2 victory points.

Note: If your road network branches, you may only count the single longest branch for purposes of the longest road.

If you hold the "Longest Road" card and another player builds a longer road, they immediately take your "Longest Road" card. They also acquire the 2 bonus victory points. (Since you also lose the 2 victory points, it is a 4-point swing!)

Example: See Illustration I. Emily, the red player, builds a continuous road with 7 wooden pieces (A–B). The branch roads (marked with arrows) are not counted. Emily snags the "Longest Road" special card.

You can break an opponent's road by building a settlement on an unoccupied intersection along that road!

Example: In Illustration I, Coleman (the blue player) builds a settlement on intersection "C" (which is legal). This breaks Emily's road into 2 parts. Emily must give the special card to Coleman, who now has the longest road (and more VPs).

Special Case: If your longest road is broken and you are tied for longest road, you still keep the "Longest Road" card. However, if you no longer have the longest road, but two or more players tie for the new longest road, set the "Longest Road" card aside. Do the same if no one has a 5+ segment road. The "Longest Road" card comes into play again when only 1 player has the longest road (of at least 5 road pieces).

On your turn, you can trade resources using maritime trade during the trade phase even without involving another player.

The most basic (and unfavorable) exchange rate is 4:1. You may trade 4 identical resource cards to the supply in exchange for 1 resource card of your choice. You do not need a harbor* (settlement at a harbor location) to trade at 4:1, so when nobody wants to trade...

Example: Benny returns 4 ore cards to the supply and takes 1 lumber card in exchange. Normally, he should first try a more favorable trade with the other players (domestic trade).

If you have built a settlement or city at a harbor* location, you can trade more effectively. There are 2 different kinds of harbor locations:

Generic Harbor (3:1):

Here you may exchange 3 identical resource cards for any 1 other resource card during your trade phase.

Example: Brad has a settlement at a generic harbor. He can, for instance, exchange 3 lumber cards for 1 wool card.

Special Harbor (2:1):

There is only 1 special harbor for each type of resource (with the same symbol). So, if you can plenty of a certain type of resource, it can be useful to build on the special harbor for that resource type. The exchange rate of 2:1 only applies to the resource shown on the harbor location. A special harbor does not permit you to trade any other resource type at a more favorable rate (not even 3:1)!

Example: You built a settlement at the ore special harbor. You may exchange 2 ore cards for any 1 other resource card. You can also trade 4 ore cards for any 2 other cards. If he traded 4 wood instead of 4 ore, he would get only 1 card in return.