CMRT: tank combat seems way off

[Weasel]

Cdn tanks are always hatches open for turret crew (mostly commander) and hull crew is buttoned, hatches are only closed in artillery or infantry assaults, otherwise the Cmdr just ducks down. Read "Tigers in the Mud", Carrius points out that the Russians always advanced hatches down while the Germans stayed opened, resulting in first spotting most of the time and first shot away. He pointed it out as one of their biggest flaws.

In games terms, in OW, I always stay opened, but I have found commanders get picked off far too easily in CM2 so once I go into combat I close up just because I am tired of hearing my commanders scream. There is no ducking, just standing up oblivious to it all. The pzIV thing was a few months ago, don't know when the bug was brought up but it explains why my PzIV in Montys Butchers got clobbered hull down (he had been there for a long time, at least 10 turns), hatches open, without seeing or returning fire from the enemy over 800m away just a week or two ago.

Just another note: I know form being on the ranges that a lot of drivers just sit there while shooting, figuring they got you there, their job is done. It was brought up over and over for them to be more active, with little results. I became quite good at it myself, I picked out a hull down turret 700m away in a tree line when the other four tanks missed it (I got a big cookie for it). I would always ask myself " where would I hide if I were a tank" and it worked. It was funny to hear the troop commander start screaming for the charlie call sign to engage it, but by then we would have been dead (I was the troop commanders drive/back up gunner).