Bofors Tornvagn

Bofors Tornvagn is a tier 8 Swedish heavy tank. It has a very strong frontal and hulldown armour profile, a gun with good accuracy and penetration, and great mobility for a heavy tank. Its downsides are in lacking DPM and stabilization.

1. Armour
2. Playing against a Tornvagn
3. Gun
4. Mobility
5. Equipment, provisions, & consumables
6. Gameplay advice
7. Overall
8. Is it worth getting?
9. Most recently sold for:
10. Camo cost:

Armour

(The Tornvagn in the images is using Enhanced Armour)

vs 278mm APCR
When flat and facing head-on:
Upper plate 280-370mm auto-ricochet
Mid-plate 262mm (250mm on shoulders)
Lower plate 140mm
Turret 270-550mm

VS tier all 6-8 tanks:
The armour of the Tornvagn will behave the same against most enemies you face, the upper plate and turret are extremely strong on both flat ground and when using gun depression, but the lower plate is weak against all enemy tanks.

-No tier 7 enemies can penetrate either the mid plate or turret.
-Only some tier 8 enemies can penetrate the mid plate (such as tanks with 270mm HEAT), but not the turret. The shoulders can be penetrated by about 255mm penetration
-Tier 9 tanks will be able to penetrate the upper plate on both flat ground and when using gun depression, given that they have 280mm+ premium penetration. High penetration heavy tanks will be able to penetrate the area under the gun, they will need roughly 340mm penetration when you’re on flat ground, and 310mm penetration when using gun depression.

Note that the turret is weaker when using gun depression due to how its angled. The area under the gun on flat ground is about 330mm thick, but when using -10 gun depression, its only 300mm thick.

The Tornvagn cannot sidescrape at all. Due to the double overmatch/2 caliber mechanic, mid and large caliber guns are basically guaranteed to deal damage to the Tornvagn if they hit its tracks and the tank is angled.
This is unfortunate as the Tornvagn has actually a very favourable layout for sidescraping, and its upper sides would still produce bounces up to the 70 degree auto-ricochet point. However this is all made redundant due to the double overmatch mechanic on the tracks (which are 20mm).
Never sidescrape, if you see a Tornvagn sidescraping, shoot their track wheel as you are almost guaranteed to penetrate, and you will lock their tank in place.

Playing against a Tornvagn

Blue area:
Shoot this if a Tornvagn is hulldown (not using gun depression), or facehugging your tank (especially if your tank has bad gun depression).

This area is the engine deck, and it can be penetrated by just 130mm of penetration. This area is always visible on flat ground, but it can be quite hard to hit at a distance. If the Tornvagn facehugs your tank, you can quite easily hit this due to a close distance, and the Tornvagn can’t really hide this area without over-turning their turret or hull.

Yellow areas:
Shoot these if a Tornvagn is facehugging you, and you have enough gun depression to hit them. Never shoot these areas in any situation other than a facehug.

The very center rectangle is the driver’s viewport, its only 210mm thick and is completely flat. Most same tier tanks will be able to penetrate this with standard ammo, and all can with premium.

The two triangles are the only areas of the upper palate angled at 73 degrees, the rest is angled at 75 degrees. Due to this lesser angle, and the fact they are at the very front of the tank, it makes them easier to penetrate when a Tornvagn is facehugging you.

Green areas:
Shoot these areas with premium ammunition if the Tornvagn is hiding its lower plate.

The two rectangles on the turret cheeks are the areas of the turret where its weakest, 270mm. Tanks such as the Tiger II, with 285mm APCR, can penetrate this area. Try to avoid hitting above/below/left/right of these areas, as the armour is far thicker, and much higher penetration is needed.

The two rectangles left and right of the mid-plate are the “shoulders”, the effective armour of these areas is 250mm, but due to AP and APCR normalization, you only need 236-244mm to penetrate (HEAT still needs at least 250mm).
Don’t be distracted by the lights covering it, look at the armour highlight underneath. Other than the lower plate, these shoulders are the weakest areas of the frontal hull armour.

Using gun depression:
If a Tornvagn is using gun depression there isn’t much you can do. If you don’t have enough premium penetration to go through the turret (you need 310mm+), then just shoot HE at the bottom of the turret. The hull deck is only 25mm thick, so HE will do good splash damage.

If you do have enough penetration to go through the turret, then shoot under the gun, its the weakest area of the turret when its using gun depression. Try to avoid hitting the gun itself, and be wary of the Tornvagn’s movements. With such a narrow turret profile it can be very easy to miss your shot.

If for some reason the Tornvagn’s hull is exposed, shoot the mid-plate and not the shoulders. The shoulders are thinner in nominal thickness, but are better angled, so when the Tornvagn uses gun depression, these shoulders become even stronger than the mid-plate. The mid-plate will be 280mm, the shoulders will be 310mm.

Sidescraping:
As mentioned in the above armour analysis, the Tornvagn is completely unable to sidescrape due to having both thin 20mm tracks, and a thin base side armour of 50mm. 
If you see a Tornvagn sidescraping, just shoot its front track wheel, as you are almost guaranteed to penetrate. Even lower caliber guns have a good chance of penetration.

HE:
Shoot HE at the sides and rear of a Tornvagn if you get the chance. The hull side armour is 50mm thick, meaning all 105mm and larger guns can penetrate the flat side armour with HE.
The hull rear is only 30mm thick, so even the lowest caliber HE shells will be able to penetrate this.

Gun

The Tornvagn mounts a 120mm gun

-Alpha damage is 400 on APCR, 340 on premium APCR, and 500 on HE
-It has a 12s reload, giving it 2004 DPM
-Penetration on APCR is 227mm, premium APCR is 265mm, and HE is 68mm.
–Estimated aim time is 4.4/4.7s
-Dispersion is 0.326/0.293
–Gun handling is 0.24/0.24/0.16, or 0.2/0.2/0.14 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -10 degrees

Overall this gun is very good. Consider that its a 400 alpha gun, on a heavy tank, in tier 8. Most other guns with this same alpha have far worse aim time and dispersion, making the Tornvagn’s gun very accurate and more reliable by comparison.
The DPM is decent, penetration is good, and gun depression is amazing.

Note that the standard APCR shell loses a very high 14.98% penetration at 500m. So every 100m distance it loses 8.5mm of penetration, until 500m where it levels off at 193mm.
Its premium APCR have an amazing 5.66% penetration loss, so these are much more consistent at long distance.

Mobility

-Top speed is 37km/h forwards, and -14km/h in reverse
-Traverse speed is 38.7 deg/s on hard terrain, and 29.8 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 15.8 hp/t, it has a fairly strong 702 horsepower engine for its 44 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 15.8 hp/t on hard terrain, and 12.1 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are good, at 1/1.3/1.9

For a heavy tank, the Tornvagn has very good mobility. Its impressive in all areas, high acceleration rate with a strong engine, great traverse speed, and a decent top speed.
Overall great mobility profile for a heavy tank.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

The Tornvagn does not have any special provisions or consumables.

Gun Rammer:
The Tornvagn is already a fairly low DPM heavy, with just over 2k when using gun rammer, and it already has superb penetration, so there is no need to use calibrated shells whatsoever. Using calibrated shells to increase any of the 2 shells this carries is just unnecessary, the additional DPM will be useful in far more situations than the penetration.

Use gun rammer, it decreases the reload time from 12.9s to 12s, and the DPM from 1863 to 2004.

Enhanced Armour/Improved Assembly:
Both work well on this tank, which one you take depends on how you play the tank.

-Enhanced armour essentially ensures that no same tier enemy (MT/LT/HT) can penetrate your mid plate, especially if you angle it slightly.
Enhanced armour will increase the turret’s weakest point from 270mm to 281mm.
The mid plate armour would increase from 262mm to 272mm, and the shoulders from 250mm to 260mm.

(Note that enhanced armour removes the side armour overmatch weakness, as the side armour will become 52mm thick, meaning all guns from 152-155mm will not be able to overmatch the side armour. Without enhanced armour, 152mm and 155mm guns can overmatch the side armour.)

-Improved assembly also works well on this tank, as its armour is already very strong even without enhancing. Just be aware that more tier 9 tanks will be able to penetrate the hull and turret, and the hull shoulders will be weaker to tier 8s.
Improved assembly will take the tank’s HP from 1750 up to 1855.

Vertical Stabilizer:
Of the accuracy-related gun statistics, the Tornvagn only struggles with its gun handling, the aim time and dispersion of this tank are already very good. 
For this reason, and the fact that its a heavy tank and should never snipe, the Tornvagn needs to use vertical stabilizer. The stabilizer makes the tank more accurate when it doesn’t get the chance to fully aim in, or when its constantly moving around the battlefield.

Gameplay advice

The Tornvagn plays just like many of the other tier 8 tanks with 400 alpha. If you have played tanks like the T34, M6 EXP, or any of the USSR/Chinese 122mm heavy tanks, you should be able to easily get the hang of this tank.

The Tornvagn sports quite a simple playstyle. Go to the frontline, hide you lower plate, deal damage. Try to use gun depression whenever possible. Never show your sides and never angle.
Try to trade in alpha damage, as your DPM is low. Use you turret and hull armour to intimidate enemies while you reload, and look for hulldown positions where you can hide your tank’s weaknesses.

Don’t be afraid of relocating or running away, the Tornvagn is not a slow heavy, its very mobile and can definitely take advantage of situations with its mobility.

Go hulldown:
For the armour to be effective, the lower plate must be hidden. Once the lower plate is hidden, enemies can only shoot at the mid plate (which needs about 270mm+ penetration), or the turret.

Due to the size and shape of the turret, even if enemies have enough penetration to go through it, it can still be a very hard target to hit, as its profile is so small, and its very thickly armoured.

When using your gun depression against tanks with 300-340mm penetration (most tier 9 tanks), point your gun down. The area of the turret under the gun can be penetrated by 300-340mm premium penetration, but due to the large muzzle brake and relatively thick gun barrel, you can use it as a physical block to hide the area under the gun. Doing this can throw off the enemies aim and may cause them to hit the gun and deal no damage. 
Never raise the gun, there’s no hatch that needs covering, and it just very obviously displays the weakest area of your turret.

Facehug enemies:
Facehugging works very well due to the aforementioned small and strong turret, however the hull is also extremely well armoured due to its angle, and the hull itself has quite a low profile. Most tanks in the tier won’t be able to aim down on the hull or hit it.

Note that the driver viewport is a weakpoint, and the area of the hull closest to the front, as its the least angled when in a facehug. Due to this, try to turn the hull and increase the angle. Don’t turn too far, as enemies may be able to hit the side armour.

Make sure to keep the turret faced front in a facehug. Since its long and narrow, if you turn the turret enemies can easily just hit the flat sides.

Sidehug tall enemies:
Due to that low hull and narrow turret, sidehugging is a perfect tactic to employ against taller and slower enemies, as they won’t be able to hit your hull or your turret, while your low profile allows you to easily shoot their hull sides.

Avoid DPM fights and brawls:
As the Tornvagn is similar to other 400 alpha tanks, it has to always try and avoid getting in to 1-on-1 fights or brawls with other tanks. It has a fairly long reload and not the best DPM, so many tanks can easily shoot twice for every time you shoot, and will be able to quickly out-damage you. 

Try to stay hulldown while you reload, this can sometimes intimidate enemies into letting you reload, as they know you are in an advantageous position and may not be confident in pushing.

Give time to aim:
The Tornvagn does not need to aim long, but it definitely needs to stop and take that time to aim if it wants to be accurate.. Its good base aim time and great 0.326 accuracy mean that even though its gun handling is poor, when the tank does stop to aim, it doesn’t have to aim for long.
The aim circle starts out smaller than most other 400 alpha heavies, and it shrinks faster as well, the Tornvagn’s only accuracy-related issue is that its not the most accurate during movement, so do stop to aim.
The shell velocity must also be mentioned, as the tank has 1,100m/s on APCR, 1,200m/s on premium APCR, and 900m/s on HE, so snapping shots in from a distance is made far easier, as you often don’t need to give any lead as the shells travel so fast.

Utilize HE:
The Tornvagn has 68mm HE penetration, which is 7mm more than most 400 alpha guns. It may not seem like a big difference, but it is significant. You can penetrate the sides of more MT easily, and the fronts of some harder to HE light tanks (ones with angled armour). 
Using HE is helpful as it really helps increase the fairly low DPM of this tank, and it deals additional module and crew damage when it does penetrate.

Never sidescrape and try to avoid angling:
Angling the tank is something you can do as a last resort, (such as if you know the enemy has enough penetration to go through your mid plate anyway, so you may as well angle so they can’t penetrate that, and just hope they don’t know about the track weakeness.)

Sidescraping is something you can’t do in any situation. The whole point of sidescraping is to hide weakpoints on your tank, however with the Tornvagn this is actually a bad thing.
1 – Because your lower plate is hidden, and the enemy can’t penetrate anywhere else, they will shoot your track.
2 – Shooting the track will not only deal damage to your tank, but it will also mean you can’t move.
3 – Being unable to move gives time for enemies to escape without you shooting them, or you have to waste a repair kit on the destroyed track.
4 – You come out of the situation with: less HP and 0 damage on the enemy because they escaped; or, less HP, -1 repair kit, and 400 damage because you managed to repair your track and shoot the enemy.

Overall

Overall the Tornvagn is a great tank. It has a nice and consistent gun, which deals good damage reliably; it has great mobility for a heavy tank, with great traverse speeds and acceleration, with a decent top speed; and its armour profile is very solid and easy to use. The only real downside is its inability to sidescrape or angle the armour.

Overall the Tornvagn ticks all the boxes a heavy tank should, and its a very good vehicle in its battle role.

Is it worth getting?

Tornvagn is worth getting if you really like the gameplay of the 400 alpha heavy tanks in tier 8. Its gameplay isn’t the most exciting or interesting, but its consistent and reliable in its role as a heavy tank.
Unlike the USSR and Chinese 122mm guns, the Tornvagn has consistent accuracy and gun depression, making it a far more reliable and enjoyable damage dealing machine.

The Tornvagn is not worth it if you hate the gameplay of 400 alpha heavies in tier 8 (including the ones with good gun depression), as it does just play very similar to those tanks, but with a few perks such as the better gun and gun depression.
Its also not the most fun of tanks, with quite a monotonous playstyle. However, it is definitely more enjoyable than most 400 alpha HT in tier 8 due to its armour, gun, and mobility.

The Tornvagn is worth 10,000 gold. Its a very strong tank, its fairly easy to play, and its quite enjoyable and reliable. The only reason to not get this tank is if you hate its slower paced playstyle, or if you want exciting gameplay. Other than that, its just a great all round heavy tank with nice high alpha.

Most recently sold for:

New release crates – March 2023
Prize draw – July 2023

Camo cost:

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