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I purchased this little gem, right before it left us for good and I plan on keeping it for quite some time, just to play with.  
I have already done the following things to it and wonder what else I should do, if anything:

1)Trained the whole crew to 75%
2)Spall Liner installed
3)Vents were installed

This leaves only one other slot available to put a piece of equipment on this beast and with the sale coming up tomorrow, I just
thought wow, I can finish this up at a bargain price or leave it like it is.

Above are listed the choices I have left and a couple I invented, your thoughts and votes are very valued.  Other wise, I would
not ask.

Happy Tanking

HOTA

I would say gun laying drive since your usually sitting while shooting and you have fast rof

I used vents/camo/binocs on my Hotchkiss. Given how slow the tank is, you'll be sitting in place enough to get use out of both camo and binocs. Granted camo and binocs are pretty useless on Himmelsdorf, but they're amazing on Malinovka and can be useful on Mines too.

Gun laying drive your going to be aiming at specific spots more than most other tanks in tier the faster you can do that the better.

I went ahead and bought the GLD.  Used it on a few games, all losses.

 tritium4ever, on Apr 06 2012 - 05:36, said:

/agree

Just a quick follow-up to my previous post, in 7.2 I've been experimenting with the toolbox in lieu of the camo net. Prior to the 7.2 patch I had repair at 100% and camo at about 60%, but after the patch the Hotchkiss was the first tank I respecced my skills. I went and grabbed Brothers in Arms as my first secondary skill (which is fine), but in retrospect I made the mistake of choosing camo again as the second skill instead of repair. I dunno what the hell I was thinking, since repair is way more useful than camo on a tank that takes enough hits to often accumulate significant module damage.

I may have to bite the bullet and spend either 400 gold to fix my mistake, or 40,000 credits to drop my second secondary skill from 61% to 41%.

You have a german light tank that you will be playing?

Use the crew of the light tank in your pz38h, you can use in both tanks (the crew must be from the other tank).

Grind and enjoy 1 crew in 2 different tanks

Im doing that with VK2801, pz38h, T-15

Spall
GLD

Optics,toolbox(they love to track you) or vents.

Also,any premium can use any tank crew of that nation and type.

Example

My Luchs crew can use the T-15 with no penatly. But the T-15 crew cant use the Luchs without penalty.

Works for any premium.

 Spectre12078, on Apr 09 2012 - 21:24, said:

Really? Has it always been like this?

 tritium4ever, on Apr 09 2012 - 21:36, said:

Yep. My Tiger Crew can use a Lowe at no penalty to any skills. So they will work at 100% no matter what. But the Lowe crew cant use the Tiger without the 25% or whatever penalty.

My T-50 crew can use the Valentine. My KV crew uses the Chuchill.


As long as the premium tank is the same nation and type of tank(light,medium,heavy) it can work for any thing.Great way to train up skills

Christ, I've had my Hotchkiss for like 7 or 8 months now and I had no idea about that feature. Guess I'm still learning things after 3800 battles.

Thanks!

Not sure why you'd want a spall liner on an already painfully slow tank, but that's your choice.  It so rarely sees arty and isn't fast enough to ram effectively; I would have opted for something else, and spall liners are very heavy to boot.  I run Vents/GLD currently, still debating third slot (100% BiA as perk too).  Was debating optics for a little extra view range.  Toolbox might not be a bad choice, keep those tracks working.  Honestly, this tank roflstomps without much help, so anything you add is gonna make it more of a beast.  Until a recent string of bad luck I carried an 80% win rate in it.

I use binocs in one of the slots. On a map like Malinkova, I can drive a few yards onto the field and sit there. Easy to detect 10 enemies that way. I also have vents. I had a spall liner that I took off another tank that really didn't need it. I have been surviving better, assuming I've been blocking more HE shells. Maybe I should reconsider and take it off, as somebody else suggested.

I had 9 kills on mines, with 1 enemy remaining. After getting Defender at my base, I had to get back to cap enemy base. Last tank was AFK at his base and I lost because I was out of ammo and I was about 5 or 10 seconds short capturing when time ran out. If I was a bit lighter, and/or had a few more AP shells instead of HE, I would've won, not draw.

Update: I tried the GLD but took a lot of damage, got killed badly 3 battles in a row. Maybe just bad luck. The spall liner seemed to only slow me down a KM or two - maybe. I put the spall back on. I think my aim time was fast enough anyway without the GLD, don't need the extra .3 secs i think that I get with the GLD.

I use my tank as a sniper. Yes it has great armor and can get up close and personal with almost anything but your armor gets better at longer range and your very accurate rapid fire gun can get its best use.

I use...

Camo Net
Binoculars (Spall Liner atm due to being poor)
Vents

My crew is
100% Driver and Commander

Commander
-6th sense
-Camoflage

Drive
-Smooth Ride
-Camoflage


6th sense with camo skill and camo net really make this tank a beast. I don't do as well in this tank since the introduction of the tetrarch but with camo, defensive driving, cover, and the rapid fire accurate (but weak) gun the Hotchkiss has, it is the strongest tank on the battlefield. I've gotten 50 top gun medals, even with the terrible T1 gun.

Priority kills should always be....
1) Tetrarchs
2) BT-2
3) T2-LT
4) MS-1

I'm not sure I would call it a sniper exactly - .42 accuracy is mediocre at best, and with penetration dropoff over distance, you can't afford to sit back too far and truly snipe. Given the somewhat lackluster penetration this tank has, flank and rear shots are best. Trouble is you lack the mobility to flank, even moreso with the added weight of a spall liner.

I find this tank works best at medium ranges, angle the armor a little for maximum bounciness and pepper enemies that you know you have a good chance to penetrate. There are certain tanks in tier 2 that you will have trouble penning frontally. Learn them and watch for flanking shots.

My current setup is:
Vents
GLD (Better aim time lets me shoot faster)
Coated Optics (always 10% longer view instead of 25% only when stopped)

Both crew have BiA 100% with repair as second skill.

There are a few tanks I fear when driving this, but if I am careful I can usually see and hurt them before they get close enough to hurt me. I like to think I do pretty well in this tank, but considering a lot of players in tiers 1 and 2 are new, thats nothing to brag about. Best game ever netted me 12 kills, it was crazy. After high tier grinding, this tank can be a riot.