Stupid StugIII crew

[PapaD]

Does anyone know how to order the crews of stugIII NOT to pop up to man the MG? They keep dying one by one whenever I try to use them.

Best regards

PapaD

[MikeyD]

Hmmm... I had thought StuG behavior had been changed awhile back so the crew wouldn't pop up unless explicitly ordered to unbutton and given a 'target light' command. The late types of Stugs have MG42 embedded in the gun mantlet for proper coaxial 'target light' when buttoned. The earlier types don't and need to unbutton and man the MG for 'target light'.

[IanL]

The context matters too. If the crew is threatened by near by infantry they will come out in an effort to defend themselves. 

Are they engaging enemy infantry close in? Also the change that @MikeyD is talking about is in the v4 engine upgrade for CMFI.

[PapaD]

I have the v3 engine. I play the huge Anzio battle (Gustaf line?) and have lots of stugIII mid. But the just keep poping up whenever there is a target, be it close or distant. To be fair, not every tank does it, but say every second tank or so are down to two man crew 20 minutes into the battle. I will upgrade, but do you think that will matter regarding this weird behaviour?

Edit: now wait just a minute. I observed now that in the latest round (I'm not playing real time) three StuG's went crazy upon seing a bazooka on the battle field. Not close, but supposedly a threat anyhow? The manned the MG's UNTIL (two StuG's) the main gun were trained (is that the correct word for it?) on the threat when they popped down.

Edited September 3, 2017 by PapaD
More intel.

[Badger73]

3 hours ago, PapaD said:

<snipped>

Edit: now wait just a minute. I observed now that in the latest round (I'm not playing real time) three StuG's went crazy upon seing a bazooka on the battle field. Not close, but supposedly a threat anyhow?

Yep, they'd respond as best they can to neutralize such a threat.

3 hours ago, PapaD said:

<snipped>

The manned the MG's UNTIL (two StuG's) the main gun were trained (is that the correct word for it?) on the threat when they popped down.

Yes, in military terms for battle behavior, "trained" is another verb for "aim", "fix", "point", and such.  Specific to weapons, it is the act of bringing the gun(s) to bear upon a target.  Once "trained", guns will "engage" (shoot) until the target is "neutralized" (destroyed).