The only time they don't turn their turret to shoot at things automatically is when they're set to passive - which means they outright don't use their machine gun.

The end result? The crew will burn up all its main gun ammunition shooting at infantry squads, instead of just turning the turret the other way around, so all they do after they burn up their ammo shooting at infantry squads is look threatening. They will never use them unless their main gun is pointed at something else - and if it's pointed at something else, it's firing.

Artificial Stupidity: Tanks with machine guns mounted on the back of their turret.

The Tiger, doing 9 armor damage per shot, has to fire three times before it starts hurting the IS-2, when the IS-2's armor would be whittled down to a rating of 83, where it would then deal 5 damage to the IS-2's hitpoints. Additionally, damage dealt to the armor moves the decimal to the left and rounds to the nearest whole - not only did the IS-2 immediately start by doing 12 damage to the Tiger's hitpoints it also reduced its frontal armor down to 98, so the next shot will do 24 damage instead and still reduce the armor by 12. The Tiger thus has to fire an extra round to wear down the IS's armor enough to hurt it, while the IS-2 is hurting the Tiger on the first shot. The IS-2's gun, dealing 122 damage, exceeds the Tiger's 110 frontal armor rating from the front, while the Tiger's 88 damage doesn't exceed the IS-2's 110.

For a better example, see an IS-2 shooting at a Tiger, a historically more or less even match up. Damage is done according to how much 'left over' damage is after a hit, meaning that a gun that does 37 damage wouldn't do squat to a unit with 110 armor until the armor is low enough that the 37 points of damage is greater than the armor. Explanation This acts as both the tank's health (a more damaged tank has less armor) and as a damage-reducing mechanic. Armor Plating As Hitpoints: How much damage a tank can withstand isn't a function of how much health it actually has - but instead how much armor it has, since (nearly) all vehicles flatly have 200 health.This doesn't mean that a 37mm cannon can't kill an King Tiger heavy tank, it'll just take a while. Armor Is Useless: Averted for vehicles, as their armor prevents a certain amount of damage from being done to their hitpoints, and strong enough armor will completely soak up damage from other weapons.

Codename panzers phase two mods