Collect or Attack? A guide to Team17League games.
Author: HHC (HereHeComes).

Index:
1.The Team17League Scheme.
2.Options.
3.Weapons.
4.Maps.

5.Drop zones.

6.Drop zone management.

7.Game summary.

8.An example.

9.Hints and tips.

10.Credits.

1.The Team17League Scheme.
Team17League was one of the official leagues back in the day when the ranks were still up. When Team17 decided to take down these leagues, the schemes that were used in these competitions were preserved by it's players. The scheme that was used in the Team17League channel is still one of the most famous schemes around and regularly used in worms competitions or fun games. This guide aims at those wormers who are interested in playing Team17League games at a high level. A basic knowledge about the use of weapons should be present as well as a basic knowledge about strategies and tactics of default (standard) games.
In case you do not have the Team17League scheme saved on your computer, download it here.

Note: Over the years a large variety of Team17League schemes have been created with mostly minor differences in options and weapons, some good, some bad, some horrible. Make sure you avoid playing the bad ones (the ones with only weak weapons in crates, the ones with only big ones, the official WWP one with 3 worm switches, etc.).

2.Options.
- Worm switch enabled.
:By far the most important option. You can choose which worms to move with. Seperates the scheme from other default schemes and thus requires different tactics than a regular pro or elite game.
- Turn time: 45 seconds.
:Sufficient time to pick up a crate and use it to deal damage.
- Round time: usually 10 minutes.
:Sudden death comes soon and in the form of a nuke. Be sure to save a few SD weapons to finish the job. 
- 3 sec mines and barrels.
- Energy ranging from 150 to 200. 
- Weapon crates fall each turn.
:Collect these crates to receive enough firepower to kill the opponent.
- Usually 10 sec rope and 5 sec normal retreat.

3.Weapons.
- Close combat weapons.
:You start the game with unlimited firepunches, dragonballs and prods. Use these to throw worms in holes or onto mines. They do not do much damage but they can be used to slowly kill a worm in case you lack better weapons.
- Unlimited girders.
:Girders are very important in this game. You can use these to block worms, protect your drop zones (see below) or make way for higher ground. Girders can be countered by torches, drills and firepunches.

A girderblock, Eug cannot attack next turn.

- Unlimited torches and drills.
:Gain access to landing zones, darkside or kill worms.
- Unlimited teleports.
:You can teleport to any place on the map in order to get a crate or conquer a landing zone, it prevents you however to use a weapon.
- 1 rope.
:A power 5 rope is always handy, this rope is very important for the game and should only be used when needed really bad. Collect all the crates you couldn't reach on foot and kill an enemy worm that had to die.
- Unlimited parachutes and bungees.
:Plenty of uses for these weapons. Parachutes are really handy to move around the map without wasting the rope.

Moving around with the parachute is very important in Team17. In this example my worm faces a wall which is too high to jump on. I nevertheless manage to get above by moving my worm to the higher ground just beneath the cliff and jumping backwards away from the cliff and parasailing back to it once I reach the highest point of my jump. My worm now floats back to the cliff and manages to get on top of it. Many cliffs and gaps that may seem impossible to get across can be mastered by using a parachute.

Weapons in crates:
- Sudden death weapons.
:These include any homing weapon, supersheeps, earthquackes, nukes, worm switch and freeze. Eighty to ninety percent of t17 games finish in sudden death, so be sure to save at least two or three of the aforementioned weapons.
- Big weapons.
:Banana bombs, salvation armies, holy grenades, cows, etc all do major damage and they should not be wasted to deal minor damage. Be sure to split the cows in three seperate herds (press 1, to get a 1-cow herd) to use them to their full potential.
- Full power bow.
:A bow deals 100 damage if both shots are a hit making it into a very good weapon to get.
- Other nice weapons to get.
:Shotgun gives you two shots, one to open up a girder, the other one to deal damage, good weapon throughout the game. The worms energy ranges from 150 to 200, making skunks and axes into important arms.

Drop zones:
In this tutorial I will often refer to certain drop zones. These are the places on a map where there is a high probability of crates being dropped. For further information see chapter 5.

4.Maps.
Double cave: Most often team17 games are played in a double cave (Cave with two layers). Double caves are really good suited for strategical play of team17 as they contain a large number of drop zones to battle for and these maps are great for sudden death play as well.
Single caves: Most single caves are not suited for team17 play. Crates will fall on the bottom and they are not easy to collect for the worms placed above.
Open caves (sides are land, middle is completely open): Don't play t17 on these maps. The large hole in the middle is one huge drop zone and strategical play is thereby discouraged.
Island caves (sides and top are land, bottom is water): You can play t17 on these maps, but they generally tend to become boring because the drop zones are easy to defend and difficult to take.
Island maps: T17 is usually not played on island maps. Strategies concerning landing zones are hard to employ and numerous air attacks are not favoured by many. SD will most likely not be reached.

5.Drop zones.

The only goal in a default game is to kill the enemy worms. In a game of Team17 the easiest road to victory is to collect crates and use the weapons you find within these crates to attack and possibly kill your opponent's worms. It is therefore very important to get as many crates as you can and at the same time preventing your opponent from doing so. Some players tend to achieve this by picking up every crate that falls using mainly teleports. They will however soon find out that this strategy does not work out in a decent way, because they are wasting time teleporting (and not attacking worms) and moving to bad places on the map. A far better strategy is to determine so called drop zones, the places where crates tend to fall down, and hold these throughout the game. You will learn that this strategy gives you a far better position later on in the game as you will occupy the best SD spots on the map, it also provides you with many crates. In the meanwhile your opponent will be forced to enter these landing zones in order to collect crates, but he can only enter these locked off zones with torches, teleports, etc, in short by using a weapon, ending his turn and enabling you to attack him first (or girder block him) before he can do any damage to your worm. This gives you full control over the game and it will be very hard for your opponent to change the tide.

Let us first determine the drop zones on a random map:

Area 1 is the top left part of the map. Not much chance crates will fall in this area, but the best place to be in SD as you can easily launch homing weapons over the roof or through the water. Seperated from Area 2 by a cliff (the one on which the crate is laying). Worms can move from 2 to 1, but not from 1 to 2 without a rope. In case you are situated in I and your opponent in 2, it may thereforebe wise to place a girder to seperate 1 from 2. Be careful when placing the girder, you may be eager to place it at the 'natural border' between 1 and 2 (A), but you can place it at B as well to create a larger area (more crates), it all depends where the enemy worm is, capture as much space as you can as long as you keep the enemy worm out of the zone. Area 3 may be a nice place for crates to drop, unfortunately it's not very large and is not a good place to be in SD. Area 4 is quite large and poses a threat to SD area 5, if you occupy this place you may want to build a girder next to the tree so you can get up and down to collect a crate without losing a turn. From this area you can also torch your way to the side and get ready for SD. Area 5 gives access to the sides to launch weapons from, but lacks good hiding spots and it's a very small area. It does however give access to the rich area 6 in the bottom right of the map by using the para trick (see picture below). Area 6 is a nice place but a simple explosion can make your worm end up in the sea. Just like the other areas on the lower layer of the map this area is useless in SD and it's wise to move away from these areas after a few turns. Area 7 is another nice area early on in the game. Area 8 is less suited due to the mines. Area 9 is a nice one, whereas 10 is awful because of the mine, it's limited space and it's vulnerability to attacks from 1.

Do not worry, you will not need to make such a determination. I do however hope that you now know what drop zones are and how they make up a map.

Chuting down the side of the map. Select parachute and walk off the side of the map. Be sure to check the wind, because the wind needs to blow you against the side of the map and not away from it. In this way you can reach the bottom sides of the map from the sides of the top layer. Can be done with bungee too, but that's really risky! 

Click here for an animated example for the parachute-trick and here for an example of the bungee-trick.

6.Drop zone management.

A few notes on how to create, defend and attack drop zones:

- Defend a drop zone with one worm. Due to the worm switch you only gain energy by defending it with more worms. It's better to have four drop zones defended with one worm, than two zones both defended with two worms. Only when a drop zone is really big and may not be risked losing, two or more worms may be used to protect it.

- You can easily create a new zone by using girders. You can also expand an existing zone by placing a girder further away and torching through the original girder or land that seperated the two zones.

- Attacking a zone is not at all easy, your opponent will always attack your worm first and you should therefore only try to conquer a zone if your enemy has no good weapons or if you can finish him off within a turn. Attacking a zone with a 30-worm is just plain suicide.

- Do not wait with attacking once an enemy has invaded your zone. Waiting for a better weapon means losing a turn and thus maybe your worm and zone as well.

- You don't know where crates will fall at the beginning of the game, observe carefully where the crates are falling and decide which zones are absolutely necessary to attack.

- Do not make it more difficult for crates to fall in your zone, avoid using abundant girders in your zone and make sure your worm's placement doesn't prohibit crates to fall (like Eug in area 8).

- If crates fall in your drop zone, do not rush to get them if you can attack the enemy in that same turn with another worm on the battlefield. It may occur that two or even three crates are located in the same zone, you can just leave them there and pick them up when someone invades the area or if you run out of weapons to attack.

- Use girders, torches, drills, firepunches, etc to make it easier to move within your zone.

- Girderblocking is not often appreciated by other players but it's hard to win without. It's wise to break out these blocking the turn after they were placed. There are usually one or two places within a zone where girder blocking is not possible (on top of a small hill for example).

- Girderblocking is often a good way to hold a zone when you have no weapons to kill the invader.

In the above situation, zepho had no weapons to kill Eug. In order not to lose the drop zone to the red team, zepho used a girder and placed

it right above Eug, practically making it into a girderblock. In this way he keeps control over the largest part of the zone, while Eug does not

have the opportunity to do any damage in order to take over the zone. The left part of zepho's zone is sealed off by the terrain and thus zepho's 

zone is fully secured for another turn.

7.Game summary.
1st turn: Check if there are any enemy worms on the bottom of the map or on the sides of it. You might be able to drown them using your f4 weapons,

mines, barrels and/or nearby crates. If this is not the case, collect a crate if it's safe, make a new landing zone, tele into a zone or do first damage to your

opponent.

Unfortunate placement for Eug, blue can move in for the kill by torching the mine down the slope before red has a chance to teleport Eug to a safer spot.

Click here for an animated example of the mixed use of firepunch and jump-buttons to get rid of a worm.

Next few turns: Make sure you always have at least two worms on the top of the map. Slowly move more worms from the bottom to the top. Secure

your zones, collect weapons and deal damage if you can get a good shot at him/her.

Towards SD: Start to focus on holding those places suitable for Sudden Death (top sides) and make sure you have a few weapons to finish the job off in SD     (It's really really hard to win in SD with only close combat weapons).

SD: Freeze if you have collected a freeze. Collect the crates that fall in your zone, remember that you can no longer switch your worms, so make sure

your worms are no longer seperated but make one huge drop zone. Wait for the water to rise and kill an opponent worm if you can.

8.An example.

The blue team.

Turn 1: I have a few options in this turn, my first worm in the top left corner has the ability to pick up the crate near him and use a weapon in the same turn. My

second worm however is located in the same area, but in a not so favourable position (he could get out by jumping and parachuting, see weapons>parachute). My other two worms are located in area number three. My opponent's worms are all situated on the bottom layer of the map, except for one worm which is situated at the top right corner. My plan therefore is to hold most of the upper part of the map as my opponent will be forced to take a part of it sooner or later. If i can defend my part of the map until SD arrives, then I will have a good chance of winning the game because I'm in control of the best SD spot (1) and a great drop zone (2). In this situation I would pick up a crate with my first worm and build a girder in area 2 to make it easier to move around in (it's pretty rough in there). In the next few turns I can move my second worm to a better spot and move away one of the other two worms as well because area 3 requires only 1 worm to defend it. So I have 2 worms to defend my zones (1 and 3) and 2 worms to attack or fully secure my zones (2 and 4). I could attack area 4, but i might encounter some heavy resistance there, a better idea could be to tele my 4th worm into area 5, so that i hold both sides of the map and enable myself to gather crates in area 6 by parasailing down the side. Just before SD i should be able to hold at least area 1 and 2 and have at least 2 worms left to finish the job.

The red team.

My worms are mainly located at the bottom layer of the map, nicely spread out among area 6, 7 and 8. These worms can gather a few crates before they make

their way up to the top layer. My first move depends on where the crate falls. If it falls in 6, 7 or 8, I can collect it and tele to the upper layer either in area 5 to

secure this area or into area 1 or 2 to try to capture this area. If it falls in 1, 2 or 3, I can teleport one of my worms (probably the one in area 8) on the bottom layer to collect it and hope that I will be able to survive and capture this zone. If it falls in 4, I can collect it with my fourth worm and torch my way into area 5 to expand area 4. Do not attack with this worm because that would pretty much mean losing your only landing zone on the top layer of the map. If it falls in 5, torch first with your fourth worm and collect the crate in your retreat. In the next few turns you slowly need to teleport your worms on the bottom layer to the top one and take as much of it as you can. The weapons you collect on the bottom layer may assist you in these attempts.

9.Hints and Tips.

I will end this tutorial with a few hints and tips to help you on your way to the professional level.

- Try to kill your opponent's worms. Total energy is less important than the number of worms you have. Four weak worms can hold four zones, whereas three strong ones can only hold three.

- Killing is the aim of the game, not collecting crates, make sure however that you always have a few weapons at hand (three is enough).

- In sudden death make sure your worm is not anywhere near the side, roof or water, make sure it's safe from quackes and dead-tele's (teleporting a weak worm high above your opponent and killing it with the fall-damage so that it does grave damage to your opponent's worm) as well.

- Incase you are playing Team17 with more than two players, focus on collecting crates and hiding places for Sudden Death. The other players will kill eachother and start SD with only a few weak worms and few weapons. Ofcourse this strategy will not make you very popular...

- Try to play against other players as much as you can. By playing against good players you will learn their tricks and tactics, as well as new ways to react to and counter advanced strategies; on the other hand does playing weak opponents hardly improve your skill.

- Enjoy yourself!

10.Credits.

A last word of thank to Zepho for letting me use his teams file when mine was eaten by worms. Team17 for creating the Team17League scheme, which to this day brings joy to many players. Everyone else who have played against me in Team17 and have shared their knowledge and skills. Hypersnap for providing me with a tool to take in-game images, and last but not least everyone who have spent their precious time reading this tutorial! Thank you all!

Send questions and comments to herehecomeswoot@hotmail.com