Bela Macourek AAR1 - 21 May 1917

[Spoonfrog]

Inspired by Baz's MVR AARs, here is a less ambitious project - I am going to play the 5 victories of the Austro-Hungarian ace Bela Macourek, who flew in Italy and Albania. I will play Macourek's aircraft and others will be flown using the solo system. Since Macourek's third kill, a Caproni Ca.3, exploded in mid-air, I will give him a boom bonus - I count any boom card that is drawn from his machine gun, but discard other any other boom card drawn.

Macourek's first victory was as an observer in a Hansa Brandenburg C.I over an Italian SPAD VII. The pilot of the two seater was Franz Stalina. The Phönix C.I card is standing in for the Hansa Brandenburg C.I in this game. I started with the SPAD (B-firing) in the blind spot behind the two seater.

My priority was to turn and get the SPAD out of Macourek's blind spot, but unfortunately the only result (apart from being sprayed by the SPAD) was a gun jam:


After some turning, Stalina got some shots in, but only low numbers were drawn:


Some more turning resulted in an overlap, which held some promise for Macourek to put a burst in the SPAD's tail:


Unfortunately his gun jammed again:


A short range shot from the Italian pilot, thankfully only 1 damage for me:


I then managed to line up the SPAD nicely outside the blind spot for Macourek to have a squirt at short range, only to have yet another gun jam:


Soon enough the Italian was on my tail again, only for the observer's machine gun to do what it does best - jam:


As Macourek worked to clear the jam, bullets from the SPAD thudded into the engine of the two seater:


Still pursued by the Italian scout, Macourek finally got a decent hit:


And shortly afterwards he scored a fatal hit on the SPAD VII and the pilot:


A hard-fought match, with an incredible number of gun jams for the Phönix observer. The damage cards were all very low, it would have taken quite a long time to wear the SPAD down without the boom card:

[flash]

Nicely done, Dom, an interesting project. I think Macourek needs a course in weapon maintenance and some time on the range; at least he got the job done with some style in the end.
Not sure what they were doing over Lancs though ?!

[Baz]

Nice work Dom, interesting battle. It’s good to see someone else reliving the scenarios. I found not to worry too much on the historic outcome as the games tend to deliver this anyway. The number of jams was high, but again perhaps this was the same historically.
Lancs or Italy/Albania is all foreign to us southerners!
Look forward to the remaining battles.

REP given

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Not sure what they were doing over Lancs though ?!

Someone must have entered the wrong IP address on their sat nav Dave!

Rob.

[flash]

Someone must have entered the wrong IP address on their sat nav Dave! Rob.

I didn't notice until I got to the end. It looks great though, being in b/w it gives it a certain something, I'm not sure a colour OS map would quite as good.

[Spoonfrog]

The map is what I have to hand, but it is a bit unrealistic... I keep meaning to get something more appropriate printed, if I can find some hi-res maps of trenches.

[camel crew]

Interesting project Dom. Look forward to more exploits

[CrashCraig]

That's quite the number of shots fired with all those jams. Thanks for posting.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

The map is what I have to hand, but it is a bit unrealistic... I keep meaning to get something more appropriate printed, if I can find some hi-res maps of trenches.

I agreed with Dave. It look splendid in black and white.
Rob.

[Hu Rhu]

Nicely done Dom and a great start to your project. I'll be looking forward to the next installments. Rep sent.

[Larry R.]

Quite an interesting game scenario, Dom. Well played. I look forward to the next game in your series.