What do you do? I have only just got my efficiency up to average, crew are getting towards 100%... and I'm starting to enjoy darting about... but the gun sucks. Can't pen half the stuff I'm pitted against even in the rear. Some of my best games have been the ones where I haven't even fired...
1. When the game opens up I only scout half the map. I basically pick a flank and run up halfway. Then I either camp out and wait to see if the enemy shows up, or I make a loop around the map and circle back to our base. If I camp out, my purpose is spotting/letting my team know which side the enemy is rolling to.
2. If I see an enemy scout related to the above, I hunt his ass down. This usually brings me back to our base anyway. Otherwise, I wait until I see the enemy...at which point I run back to our base and let the big boys hold the line.
3a. If there is a weakside (i.e. no enemies), I usually run that way and try to get behind the lines to hunt arty. Might have to camp out for a few minutes until this point of the game - alt tab + ATOT while waiting.
3b. If there is no weakside OR if I'm on the bottom, I will find where the big boys are playing and piss off bigger tanks. This usually involves fighting around rocks, buildings, circle of death, etc. I circle of death lower tier tanks, and I block larger tanks from retreating. Or I will try to draw fire away, letting our heavies do the work. Basically a lot of run/hide/pissing people off. Hell sometimes I circle of death large tanks just to piss em off - hopefully arty will come in and do some damage, or that KV-3 across the map saves my ass...
One of my favorite strategies here is finding a 2v1 (ie 2 of our guys vs 1 of their heavy tanks). I rush up to their rear and start firing away. Rushing up to their rear also blocks their retreat. So their option is to either turn around and try shooting you (letting your allies do some major damage) or to sit there and take it. HE spamming while doing this will also fuck up their aim.
Not penning used to piss me off, but I will HE spam to try to kill crew members or draw fire. I'm also
very aware of where enemy guns are pointing. As long as the guns are not pointed at me, I will run out and pew pew to piss a tank off. Sometimes I get lucky and do damage
I usually live > 5 minutes using this strategy and it's been pretty fun.