County of Fortune how to build roads: pick "Build a road" on the bottom toolbar (or press V) and drag the road from the market square of one settlement to the market square of another. The ends have to land on the centre square itself, not merely next to it.
County of Fortune how to build roads: connect the centre squares
- Select "Build a road" in the bottom toolbar, or press
V. - Start on the market square of the first settlement — the square in the middle of the settlement, which turns yellow when you hover over it with the road tool active.
- Drag towards the second settlement and finish on its market square.
The centre square is made of two tiles, so starting on the wrong tile of the pair will not connect. Two road ends next to each other is not sufficient: the roads have to connect directly.
Hold Shift to build diagonally, which is the easy way to run a road around an obstacle. When the two settlements sit on opposite banks of a river, building a bridge comes first and the roads are drawn to it.
Reading a red road section
A red section means the road cannot be built there, and there are three different reasons for it.
- Water. Crossing water means you need to build a bridge first with the bridge tool, and then draw the roads to it. Building bridges has the order that works.
- Cost. Sometimes a section is red simply because it costs more than you can currently afford.
- Terrain. The ground there is not buildable.
A red section is a placement problem, not a defect in the road: move the road, pay for it, or bridge the water. Upgrading a dirt road to a stone one is a separate step, and upgrading roads covers it.
The demo and Early Access builds show a settlement-connection visualisation while you build, so you can see immediately which settlement a planned road will belong to and whether the connection is valid.
What a connected road changes
Roads are what make a region function. Once two settlements are connected by a road, a settlement that has been set to accept a food recipe or equipment starts receiving deliveries automatically — the vendors move the goods themselves. If products are not arriving, check first that the road is genuinely connected to the settlement's square. Distributing products covers the rest of that chain.