Looking for a clear explanation...

[low_bidder]

Now that the muddy water has cleared a bit, here comes another dirt clod.
The game does do 'over penetration'. That is what happens when his 88 hits your halftrack at 50 meters and goes thru one side and out the other. MANY historical examples of this happening. Trucks, Jeeps, etc. too.
It the shot doesn't hit anything solid enough to stop it, then it won't stop.
As far as being +2 levels higher, The game used to have 'hull down' in it, where the hit % was reduced to account for the only target being the turret. If that was the case, then only turret armor was considered IF you got a hit. Not sure if the calc was ran to determine hull or turret hit and hull hits ignored or if it was Just a modifier for size ( turret is smaller). Not even sure if it's still in the game. It used to be several versions ago that a hull down tank was harder to kill. Except for the Soviet tanks, which couldn't get hull down (by NATO standards, it means something different to the Red Army) because their gun couldn't depress enough. I think hull down was dropped about ver 2.5 Although I really don't know. It used to be Leo's and Chieftains were extremely hard to kill when hull down. They don't seem to be any more difficult then any other MBT in the newer versions of the game.