Pier 18 is a two or three player game. There are 18 cards in the game.

Start:

Each player takes 3 cards and chooses their Plan card (objective) and Foundation card (ie. start of their Pier).

First, each player decides which Plan they would like to keep from their 3 cards. If a player completes the objective on their Plan, they will score 4 points at the end of game. (note: on BGA this is the second card you will choose.)

Second, each player selects a different card to be the Foundation of their Pier and places it face up, sideways on the left side of the table in front of them. The Foundation attaches to the land on the left and extends out to the water on the right.

Third, each player selects their Plan card. This card also becomes the last card of their Pier at the end of the game. Place it face up on the right side of the table for reference.

Each player then discards their remaining card. These are shuffled back into the deck.

Play:

In a two player game there are 4 rounds after placing the Foundations. A three player game has 3 rounds.

The player with the earliest date (closest to January 1) on their Foundation card plays first in round 1. First player moves clockwise for each subsequent round.

Each round, draw a number of cards face up equal to the number of players plus one.

The first player chooses one card and adds it to their Pier. This card extends their Pier into the water and may overlap columns of the previous Pier card but cannot completely overlap it. Each choice will affect the scoring for each symbol on their Pier.

Play continues clockwise with each player choosing one of the remaining cards and placing it on their Pier in the same way.

The remaining card not selected becomes the Patron card for that round.

In the top left of each card is a symbol which represents the Patron for that card. Each player counts up the number of points currently scoring for that symbol on their Pier (see scoring). The person with the most points for that symbol then receives the Patron card and places it face down on the left side of their Pier. In the event of a tie, the person who played the card with the earliest date for that round will receive the Patron. Patrons are worth 1 point each at the end of the game.

Symbols are:

Star - (Gold) Flower Seller

Quill - (Blue) Poet

Heart - (Red) Lovers

Anchor - (Brown) Fisher

A new round starts by drawing new cards face up.

End of game:

When there are not enough cards remaining to draw for a full round, each player places their Plan card as the final extension of their Pier. Each player does this at the same time and the game ends.

Scoring:

• 1 point for every 2 Poets on their Pier.
• 2 points for each Lovers symbol with no other character within 2 spaces on the same side. (ie, 2 blank spaces on both sides of the Lovers.) The land and water ends of the Pier count as ‘blank’ spaces.
• 1 point per Fisher on the side of the Pier which contains the most Fishers. (Fishers on the other side do not count.)
• For each group of symbols next to each other, if there is at least 1 Flower Seller, then the group will score one point for each other symbol in the group. Multiple Flower Sellers in a group will not score multiple times.
• Completing your "Plan" card objective scores 4 points.
• 1 point per Patron.

Tie-Breaker: Most number of symbols on their Pier wins. If still tied, the Plan card with the earliest date (closest to January 1) wins.