OK, maybe I’ve awful aim, but when shooting troops with either the tank’s machine gun or HE rounds (yes I aim the HE at the surfaces next to them, rather than straight on) they’re not dying. Have to hover on infantry with the machine gun for a long time before they go down. Very frustrating!
Also no joy when firing HE round into buildings I know are occupied. No kills appear on the feed.
But conversely, if one of my infantry is unlucky to encounter a tank on the open, instakill!
the 20mm belt HE’s don’t do a lick of good, it’s similar to throwing rocks at the enemy, unless you hit them straight on, then you might as well keep using AP belts. 45mm HE is a bit better, i’ve had mixed results though so keep trying I suppose. 75-76mm HE should blast them out with no problem.
Some tank’s cannon MG won’t align very well with the main cannon scope, you’ll have to watch the rounds and surfaces they hit to get a good feel of where to aim when using the MG. Go do the Practice range a bit and shoot at surfaces and targets to get an idea.
Depends on tank overall. Like T-60 has and awful slow firing MG but it’s 20mm cannon can be used to strafe house (non brick walls) from one side to another, killing everyone inside.
The 40mm HE rounds often detonate too early but are really good against thin wooden houses as they explode after penning outer wall.
The 75mm HE often over-pens even log houses, exploding on the furthers wall or completely passing the house. With those it’s more effective to shoot at the side of the window slit, then wall is too thick and it will explode on the slit itself, throwing fragments inside of the house.
Shooting at the ground is effective only with larger calibers like over 70 mm, with smaller caliber you get a better effect by hitting soldier with HE directly, it creates a larger area to fragments to fly around and often kills whole squad.
German tanks overall have better MGs, as those where MG34/MG38 that have a good firerate. On Russian tanks it really depends on specific tank. Like both T-60 and T-26 uses the same coax DT machinegun but on T-26 it feels like it has a higher fire-rate.
In summary, it is a bit fiddly but you will learn overtime what works and what doesn’t. Try to experiment. Some houses are often occupied by infantry and can be penned by regular MG, those can easily land you 10-15 kills on a single MG belt.