How do piers connect networks through a lake?

[kcigam]

Does anyone know why the longest railroad in this game is the 7-pointer on the right, and not one that starts on the center-left and goes through the river to connect with the other railroad on the bottom-left?

The length of this railroad is 9, AFAICT. Am I misunderstanding how piers connect networks?

https://imgur.com/a/cSDUxB7

[Marja1991]

The longest railroad needs to be continuous. There is water between the tracks of railroad, so those are not continuous. Piers connect to everything else connected to the lake, but you need to be able to follow the railroad/highway all the way without interruption.

[sojurn]

I think the confusion comes from how piers work. They connect to water but don’t create a continuous track across it. The 9-point railroad is interrupted by water, so it doesn’t count as one escape road continuous route. The 7-point railroad is considered the longest because it’s uninterrupted and fully connected, which meets the requirement for the longest route.

[kcigam]

Thanks for the explanation! I had a different impression from the 6th bullet from the rulebook for Railroad Ink: Deep Blue (https://cdn.1j1ju.com/medias/9c/f7/6c-r ... lebook.pdf) on pg. 12:

Networks connected to the same Lake (by Piers) are also connected to each other.

Am I misreading this?

[kcigam]

I get it now, connectivity through piers is relevant to scoring network sizes, but not to bonuses scored from longest highway/railroad lengths.

(Also corroborated in this BGG post: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/206874 ... 6#30125726)