AACHEN: 
FIRST TO FALL

EXCLUSIVE RULES

10.0 INTRODUCTION
	10.1 First Player

11.0 REINFORCEMENTS
	11.1 Quantity of Reinforcements
	11.2 When Reinforcements Arrive
	11.3 Where Reinforcements Arrive
	11.4 Reinforcements and Combat

12.0 ENEMY ZONES OF CONTROL
	
13.0 WEST WALL FORTIFICATIONS
	13.1 The US 30th Infantry Division

14.0 RIVER CROSSING

15.0 US 2nd ARMORED DIVISION

16.0 VICTORY CONDITIONS
	
17.0 SCENARIOS

18.0 GAME NOTES
10.0 INTRODUCTION
Aachen is a simulation of the US attempt to capture the city of Aachen Germany inOctober 1944. 

10.1 FIRST PLAYER
The Allied player is the first player throughout the game (see 3.0).

11.0 REINFORCEMENTS
Enter reinforcements in the hexes listed, or in any hexes within the hex-range listed (inclusive) at the beginning of each respective player’s movement phase or mobile movement phase. A unit may move immediately during the same game turn it arrives on the map, however no unit may arrive and end its movement stacked in the same hex with any other unit.

11.1 QUANTITY OF REINFORCEMENTS
Reinforcements generally arrive during specific game turns. 

GERMANY
GAME TURN FOUR	
Unit Type:	Hexes: 	
2-3-7	2204	
4-5-7	2105 or 2205	
GAME TURN SIX	
3-5-8	2204	
4-5-8	2105 or 2205	
6-4-12	2105 or 2205	
GAME TURN SEVEN	
6-5-12	2204	
GAME TURN EIGHT	
2-1-12	2813	
GAME TURN 10	
5-6-12	3014 or 3016	
5-6-12	3014 or 3016	
GAME TURN 13	
3-5-12	3014 or 3016	
5-6-12	3014 or 3016	
5-6-12	2612, 2813 or 2914	
6-5-12	2612, 2813 or 2914	
6-5-12	3014 or 3016	

UNITED STATES
GAME TURN THREE	
Unit Type:	Hexes: 	
2-2-7 	0301	
GAME TURN SEVEN	
2-2-7 	0301	
GAME TURN ELEVEN	
2-4-7 	0119	

11.2 WHEN REINFORCEMENTS ARRIVE
Reinforcements arrive at the beginning of a player’s movement phase. A unit arriving when the movement phase begins must expend movement points in the first hex entered, and may then continue to move. Mobile units that did not arrive during the movement phase may arrive at the beginning of the mobile movement phase instead, and may continue to move normally.

11.3 WHERE REINFORCEMENTS ARRIVE
Per the hexes or range of hexes listed under 11.1. 

11.4 REINFORCEMENTS & COMBAT
Reinforcements may participate in combat normally during the combat phase of the same turn they arrive. If a reinforcement unit’s arrival hex is occupied by any enemy unit, the reinforcement may not arrive until a game turn wherein that hex is no longer occupied by any enemy unit.

12.0 ENEMY ZONES OF CONTROL
Reinforcements may be placed in an enemy zone of control, but must abide by the normal rules (see 6.0).

ZOCs never extend into any enemy occupied fortified hex.

13.0 WEST WALL FORTIFICATIONS
The various West Wall fortification hexes on the map are fortified hexes (see 7.5). Any unit occupying a fortified hex may ignore any retreat result (whether a defender retreat or an attacker retreat). That is, any retreat result is considered to be “no effect;” however, any retreating unit that is outside a fortified hex must continue its full retreat normally; its retreat is not cancelled by moving into or through a friendly controlled fortified hex.

In addition, ZOC do not extend into any enemy-occupied fortified hex, except from any US 30th Division unit (see 13.1).
Fortified hexes may not be destroyed during the course of the game.

Any unit (including a US unit) that captures a fortified hex will derive the fortification’s benefit while occupying that fortified hex.

13.1 US 30th INFANTRY DIVISION
The US 30th Infantry Division had been specially trained and equipped to assault the West Wall. As such, any US unit of the 30th Division (any US unit printed with “30”) projects a ZOC into a fortified hex normally, as if into any other hex.

14.0 RIVER CROSSING
There are no intact bridges spanning any river hexside. (All of the bridges have been demolished prior to the beginning of the scenario.) An engineer unit may be employed by either player to permit any friendly units (including the engineer unit itself) to cross any river hexside (that is not within any enemy unit’s ZOC) as if it were a bridge hexside. To do so, the engineer unit must be within movement range (in terms of hexes, not MP) of one (only) specific river hexside (either side of the hex) during the owning player’s movement phase or mobile movement phase. That specified hexside is therefore considered a bridged hexside for the entirety of that turn. Indeed, the road movement bonus is not interrupted when moving into a river hexside that is currently bridged by an engineer unit, if within its movement range (in terms of hexes, not MP).

A bridged hexside may remain as a bridged hexside until the owning player designates another river hexside (within an engineer unit’s movement range) as a bridged hexside. The owning player may opt to designate a different river hexside to be bridged at any time, but no two different river hexsides may ever be utilized as bridged hexsides during the same game turn.

A bridged hexside permits any unit (including enemy) to attack across that hexside per the bridge terrain type, if the owning player had designated or utilized that hexside as bridged during that same game turn.

15.0 US 2nd ARMORED DIVISION 
The US player will receive additional reinforcements (the 2nd Armored Division) during any game turn after at least three West Wall fortified hexes within two hexes of the Wurm River have been captured by any US units. Each of the three captured West Wall fortified hexes, however, must be adjacent to one of the other two captured West Wall fortified hexes. 

As of the game turn after three connected West Wall fortified hexes have been captured, the US 2nd Armored Division arrives; all units of the 2nd Armored Division must arrive together (the US player may not withhold any units to arrive during a later game turn), tabulated as follows:

Unit Type:	Hexes: 	
3-3-12	0102-0109	
3-3-12	0102-0109	
3-3-12	0102-0109	
3-3-12	0102-0109	
4-3-12	0102-0109	
4-3-12	0102-0109	
4-3-12	0102-0109	
4-3-12	0102-0109	
4-3-12	0102-0109	

16.0 VICTORY CONDITIONS
The US player wins the game if he can, at any time (even if only momentarily), occupy all Aachen city hexes, as well as at least half (six) of the east map-edge road hexes (hexes 2204, 2612, 2813, 2914, 3014, 3016, 3018, 3019, 3024, 2730, 2531 and 1934), representing the roads leading into the heart of Germany. If the US player captures all Aachen city hexes, but insufficient (less than six) east map-edge hexes when the game ends, the game is a draw. If the US player does not capture all of the Aachen city hexes before the last game turn, the game is a German victory, even if the US player has captured half or more of the east map-edge road hexes. 

17.0 SCENARIOS
Aachen has one historic scenario of the US First Army’s VII and XIX Corps attempt to capture the German city in October of 1944. Aachen was defended by the German 15th Army’s LXXXI Corps, which occupied a double belt of bunkers, “dragon’s teeth” and anti-tank ditches. After the failure of Operation Market Garden, the Germans reinforced the West Wall with nearly a quarter-million troops; the US First Army encircled and besieged Aachen for nearly three weeks before finally taking the city.

Set-up the following units in the hexes indicated below. Set-up locations have no other impact on game play.

GERMANY
Unit Type:	Hexes: 	
0-1-6	0409	
0-1-6	1428	
		
1-1-6	0317	
1-1-6	0518	
		
1-1-7	0415	
1-1-7	2124	
1-1-7	1823	
1-1-7	1330	
1-1-7	1226	
1-1-7	1527	
		
1-2-6	1522	
		
1-2-7	0411	
1-2-7	0413	
1-2-7	0619	
1-2-7	0522	
1-2-7	0423	
1-2-7	0426	
1-2-7	0428	
1-2-7	0628	
1-2-7	0829	
1-2-7	1129	
1-2-7	2621	
1-2-7	2223	
1-2-7	2023	
		
2-2-7	2422	
2-2-7	0401	
2-2-7	3019	
2-2-7	2820	
		
3-4-7	0407	
3-4-7	0405	
3-4-7	0403	
		
3-2-12	0604	
3-2-12	2123	
		
4-3-12	1726	
4-4-12	2520	

ALLIES
Unit Type:	Hexes: 	
2-3-7	0205	
2-3-7	0203	
2-3-7	0302	
2-3-7	0209	
2-3-7	0207	
2-3-7	0211	
2-3-7	0213	
2-3-7	0215	
2-3-7	0117	
		
3-3-7	0932	
3-3-7	1232	
3-3-7	1532	
3-3-7	1629	
3-3-7	1729	
3-3-7	1827	
3-3-7	1925	
2-3-7 (1st Div)	1926	
3-3-7	2025	
		
2-2-12 (3rd Div)	2630-3028	
2-2-12 (3rd Div)	2630-3028	
2-2-12 (3rd Div)	1934-2431	
2-2-12 (3rd Div)	1934-2431	
2-2-12 (3rd Div)	1934-2431	
2-2-12 (3rd Div)	1934-2431	
3-2-12 (3rd Div)	2630-3028	
3-2-12 (3rd Div)	1934-2431	
3-2-12 (3rd Div)	1934-2431	
		
2-2-7	0301	
3-3-8	0332	
5-4-8	0630	

17.1 EXCESSIVE US CASUALTIES
The length of the scenario is decreased by one complete game turn for each US unit that is eliminated (not merely depleted). For example, if the German player eliminates five US units, the game will end at the end of game turn 15 (instead of game turn 20). Victory is determined normally whenever the last game turn has been completed. 

If a US unit is eliminated such that the above condition is met, the scenario ends and victory conditions are determined immediately. No additional phases, movement or combat may be conducted by either player. 

18.0 GAME NOTES
The October fighting for Aachen marked the first time that the Americans had attempted to take a German city; the price they paid for Aachen caused a lot of the US ‘top brass’ to think twice about direct assaults against other German cities, not to mention Berlin. Aachen depicts the situation in October, when the exhausted US 1st Infantry and 3rd Armored Divisions of Collins’ VII Corps had punched a hole in the West Wall and held a salient south of Aachen from a point just west of the city, about 25 kilometers eastward to the town of Stolberg (which was already partly controlled by the Americans.) Far to the north, the US 30th Infantry Division of Corlett’s XIX Corps was strung out just west of the Wurm River, opposite the towns of Ubach-Palenberg and Geilenkirchen.

Between those two American corps were elements of a half dozen German divisions from LXXXI Corps. Some of these “divisions” were ad hoc conglomerations of police, training formations, and whatever else could be scraped together. In the south, the Germans occupied a fairly deep salient which, at its narrowest point, was just 10 kilometers wide. Only VII Corps’ exhaustion (and the fortifications of the West Wall) allowed the German salient to remain tenable.

The American view of the situation was simple: If the West Wall could be cracked in the area just south of Geilenkirchen, the US 30th Infantry Division (supported by part of the 2nd Armored Division) might be able to link up with VII Corps around Haaren just northeast of Aachen, thereby pinching off the tip of the German salient. 

Aachen would then—presumably—fall quickly as the American offensive swung east toward the Stolberg-Eschweiler communications nexus and the Roar river crossings. The Americans hoped to accomplish these ambitious goals in a few days, however—despite an impressive XIX Corps breakthrough in the Ubach-Palenberg area—the operation required two full weeks of difficult fighting just to isolate Aachen, and another week to capture the city (earning the moniker “Bloody Aachen” from the G.I.’s.) In fact, rather than driving on toward the Roer, the US 30th Infantry Division found itself fighting for its own survival when the Germans eventually committed the 1st SS Panzer Corps’ 3rd and 116th Panzer Divisions to the sector.
— David Ritchie

CREDITS
Design: David James Ritchie
Redesign: Eric R. Harvey
Cartography: Redmond A. Simonsen, David James Ritchie, Eric R. Harvey
Map Graphics: Joseph Youst
Counter Graphics: Eric R. Harvey and Larry Hoffman
Rules Booklet Layout: Callie Cummins
Development & Playtesters (original team): Jon Pickens, David James Ritchie
Playtesters (redesign): Eric R. Harvey and J. Scott Morris. 
© 2010, Decision Games, Bakersfield, CA. Made & Printed in the USA. [AachenRules_V4]