Alright, you little worms! So you're all well-trained monstrous deadly killing-machines who have mastered the sophisticated art of ending a worm's life but still require some extra lessons in field tactics to become truely legendary commanders? Then you are just right here in this training camp.

Hey! YOU! Immediately put this ring back into the grenade!
That's right. And now ... TAKE THE GRENADE OUT OF YOUR MOUTH, SOLDIER!!! We aren't going to practice this today.

Alright. So these are the rules:

Rule #1: There are no rules.
Rule #2: THERE! ARE! NO! RULES!
Rule #3: Just follow these simple rules:

In case you play with manual placement, position your worms at places where they are covered by walls or unexplosive obstacles so that they can't be thrown into the water. Your worms don't want to be fish fodder even before the fish have got hungry!
Don't place them too close to each other, but also don't spread them on the map too much. You do not want hostile explosive or poisonous weapons or sentry guns to harm more than one of your worms at a time, but you want to have supremacy in the place from where you are going to begin your world conquest. (We will discuss supremacy in the lesson on supremacy.)
If possible, place the majority of your worms at a high area where they can survive sudden death but are save from air strikes.
In games which include stationary weapons and machines, try to control an area where there's a tank or helicopter! Owning such kinds of machines provides an incredible advantage.
It's also a good idea to place one single worm at a spot that can hardly be reached by the enemy. Think of small caves with a lot of material around. In games with different classes of worms you may place a scientist there. This hidden worm will be your assurance in case all of your other worms have died. It may launch air strikes and use similar weapons and tools that don't require the target to be in sight.

At the beginning of turn #1, your first thought should be: Which enemy worms could I sink right away?
Your second thought should be: Which of my worms could the enemy sink right away?
That's right; a true worms commander knows his priorities!
If you have the chance to start off with a worm being in a good position to teach an enemy worm a diving lesson, go ahead and tell it to do so! But make sure that your worm will end the turn at a safer spot than the one from where the other worm began its wet journey.
If you start from a place where you can not kill an enemy worm right away while there's another one of yours who could do so, don't hesitate to use worm selection and switch to that worm after moving your first worm to a safe spot! By that way you can have an extra turn and an extra worm and make your enemy have an extra-no worm. That makes the game just fair since there are no cheats!
All the same, mind that while killing a worm the traditional way is doubtlessly an art, killing a worm by drowning it is an art of its own - especially during the first turns when numerous weapons such as the baseball bat are not yet availible. You may have to use basic weapons such as firefist, mines, grenades, bazookas or the deadliest weapon of all: the prod.
What? Why the prod was the deadliest weapon of all? Because it may break a worms' armies' moral's neck when a comrade's life is ended by a sneaky, tickling fingertip! Not that worms had a neck, but their moral does.
However, it's crucial to know how basic weapons work and how they will set a worm flying. It might, for instance, be better to place a mine not directly beside the lucky winner of the diving contest, but a little bit further away from it, as that will influence the worm's flying curve.

Alright. I assume that most of you know how to handle your weapons perfectly professionally. To be a truely outstanding worms commander requires a profound understanding of any technical aspect of ... No, it's more something like a metaphysical unification of mind and ...

SOLDIER!!! Who the heck has allowed you to let your sheep run around here?! GO CATCH IT RIGHT NOW!!!

Alright. Well; very well. So we're going to discuss weapons and tools from a tactical perspective here.

Poison Weapons are most effective early in the game while there are still many worms being positioned close to each other and there's plenty of time left.
Do not underestimate a steady -5 on a worm's health - especially when they are dealt to more than one worm! It's a more sudden death even than sudden death.
Throw skunks and old ladies into holes with several enemy worms inside so that there's no escape from their poisonous farts. Be artists!

Super-destructive area-effective special weapons such as donkeys or armageddon are two-edged swords that may cause even more damage than you want them to. That's doubtlessly just what makes them a worm's favourite toys. However, be aware of the fact that you should only use them when you are outnumbered and in need of catching up. Be also aware of the fact that I said 'should'!

Sentry guns are true multi-tools; they may protect areas from being entered, deal damage to the enemy during enemy turns and improve the damage you deal during your turns. Furthermore they can catapult flying worms into the water. Use them to have enemy worms stand still and be nice or have some extra damage or to keep them from trespassing your garden when they're outnumbering you.
When placing them next to a worm, always have them aim at the worm's back so that the worm can't aim at them without turning around.
They can be countered by teleporting or moving out of sight quickly, by placing girders next to them, by converting them with certain weapons such as lightning (depending on the game), by smashing them away using a baseball bat and by simply destroying them from a safe spot or by shooting at them without moving. Whatever the enemy will do, he will either be going to lose worms, health points, turns, weapons/tools or opportunities while you yourself lose only one single action. Thus used wisely, sentry guns are the perfect tactical tool.

Knockout is an exquisite and yet rarely used attack that sends a worm sleeping before making sure that it will never wake up again. Use it when the enemy has several worms positioned at other places so that the knocked-out worm doesn't even get to react before your acting.

Sheep are very intelligent animals. Sadly they never act like intelligent animals. I suppose that they are so intelligent that they prefer to hide their intelligence for not to be considered as intelligent as they really are. I don't know why they would do so, but I'm just not as intelligent as them.
Anyway, always expect your sheep to do the opposite of what you tell them to do, then you won't be surprised when using them. If you want to use them wisely, use them stupidly.

Moles don't cause much damage, but you can use them for digging tunnels such as curvy or vertical ones through which you may throw grenades or other gifts that you want to surprise your enemies with.

Burners are not only useful tools for digging tunnels, but also powerful weapons when used in the right place. You may use a burner to dig a tunnel and then directly attack an enemy worm at the other side. Doing so, you may either throw that worm down a cliff or cause a decent amount of damage by moving from left to right and from right to left and from left to right and from right to left and from ... Where was I? Anyway, just keep going left and right and the other way round so that the enemy worm is going to be well-done from both sides.

Defensive Tools such as shields and magnets are boring - especially to the enemy. Use them when you're under pressure and seek protection from enemy worms or explosive weapons such as air strikes or bazookas. Mind that this only works when the enemy is at a distant place or unable to directly counter what you do.
Shields do not only protect your worms from enemy attacks - but also from your own ones! Why not protect your surrounded worm and then launch an air strike on everything moving?
Magnets provide good safety zones when you're in a long-distance duel. You may exit the zone to attack and then jump back into it to take a power nap while the enemy is yelling bad words at you.
Girders are defensive tools too and can be used in many ways - be it to protect your worms from air strikes or other sorts of attacks, to build bridges or ladders to unaccessible places, to go for the clouds during sudden death, to block unfriendly worms from certain areas or to trap them inside of tunnels ... A girder used in the right place at the right time may drive a worm commander more nuts than he already is.

Transportation Tools help your worms get from A to B more quickly than a worm can walk and thus are invaluably precious. I mean, let's be honest: We are lamers. So don't waste your jetpacks, teleporters, ropes and parachutes, but do use them where they make the difference! They make a difference where it's about killing an enemy worm or saving one of your worms' life. Whenever possible, prefer parachutes to ropes, ropes to teleporters and teleporters to jetpacks. Always keep in mind that you might have to save at least one of the better ones to get to a safe spot during sudden death!
Oh, and by the way: In some games you may change an enemy worm's position by nudging it with a rope-swing jump. That way you may put that worm in a place from where you may throw it into the water. Some commanders consider that as cheating; so do it!

Let's talk about numbers.
Two minus one makes one.
One minus one makes zero.
Got it?
Be the two, and you're the one; be the one, and you're the zero!

In other words: Since most weapons deal more or less the same amount of damage, you can predict how a battle is perhaps going to end. Thus you should always try to outnumber (judging by the number of worms and their health points) the enemy when facing him. If you are outnumbering the enemy, then just go ahead and shoot, smack, bite, scratch, kick; nobody will be left to tell anyone how you won. In case you are the outnumbered one, things are a little bit more complicated ...

If one or more of your worms are trapped in a direct confrontation where they are outnumbered while there are still reinforcements left somewhere else, do your best to either get the besieged ones out or have the reinforcements join the fun or support their comrades with things such as teleport shields or worm exchange as soon as possible. There's no point in letting your worms die as long as you can teleport them somewhere else where they can fulfill their duty to die a little bit later.

If there are no reinforcements left and you are controlling an outnumbered bunch of losers or even only one of them, then it's time to grow balls of steel, face destiny and become a truely feared coward. Mind: Heroes die; cowards survive. So have your brave remnant dig, hide, build bunkers, or teleport it to a safe place where it might be able to survive sudden death or from where it might be able to fight enemy worms one by one or have a breathtaking long-distance grenade-and-bazooka battle that you might win by supremacy in sheer dexterity.

What the ...
WILL YOU LAY DOWN YOUR BAZOOKA, SOLDIER!!! This is not a fishing rod!

Alright. That's about it. Congratulations, sol... - erm - commanders! You now look a lot wiser than before. That's still not wise ... But you have to start somewhere to end somewhere.
In this spirit I wish all of you a happy end!
You may swallow your grenades now.