Constraint sort
Sort constrained tiles from flexible ones
A road-network board where corners, straights, and endpoints must agree across the entire layout.
A practical first-session plan
Separate the board into constrained and flexible pieces. Endpoints, corners near an edge, and tiles with only one credible neighbor should be oriented first. Use those fixed connections to narrow the choices for central junctions instead of solving every tile independently.
Board read
Read the edges before the center
Solve edge pieces and fixed endpoints first because they offer fewer credible orientations than the center.
Input to expect
Select a road piece repeatedly to cycle its orientation; placement rules are shown on the current board.
Recovery note
Rotate the earliest one-sided tile
If the road dead-ends, locate the earliest tile with only one connected side and rotate that branch.
Diagnose a stalled run
When the route forms a dead end, trace backward to the first tile that accepts a connection from only one side. Rotating a later piece cannot repair a branch whose earlier entrance already points away from the network.
Road board questions
Road Connection questions
Which road pieces deserve my first rotations?
Give the first rotations to tiles whose neighbors leave only one credible direction, such as edge corners, endpoints, and pieces with a single open side. Once their lines are locked, the middle of the board decides itself from the outside in.
What should I do when the road dead-ends?
Walk the route backward to the first tile that accepts only one connection and turn that piece. A dead end further along cannot be fixed by rotating later tiles when the entrance already points away from the network.