Good summary of the early mechanics unreg. There were some points I didnt know about (mostly the thing with rotation and Light tanks having better arc of fire.)
Yesterday after approx 7 and half hours my tank ran into an enemy that dealt over 200 damage. Two of those, one after each other.
Coupled with a lot of enviromental damage from the random events, that every time stripped her of 67-98 HP, I had to recall her prematurely.
The best success with gathering seems to come from my 4* Destroyer. At the moment she is still under lvl 10, but has almost 700 hp, and 100 damage so up to a certain point she can scout reliably.
The other one I am using is "Sarah the Super Pershing" (damn I love this name, "Super Pershi" sounds fuzzy and adorable every time I see it.), the one we got from pre-reg. Being a 5* she has ver reliable stats and does well.
Funny enough though she has problems finding items, she usually gets the best amount of resources but almost no items, whereas my two destroyers always fill in on items they can carry, but tend to bring less resources. Might be just my biased observation though