The term Victory Points has evolved into something new with the arrival of sixth edition. For those of you that have been in the hobby for as long as I have, Victory Points used to refer to the points that a unit gives up as it is damaged it destroyed. In some missions those points would be tallied up at the end of the game to determine the winner.
The use of Victory Points in the previous edition while still a published mechanic (page 300 v5 rulebook) was in many ways shoveled under the carpet in favour of the Kill Point mechanic - which in the minds of many was too granular to be effective.
Astronomi-con continued to use the Victory Points mechanic for their missions which called for these sorts of scoring and still found it to be effective and accurate. It should also be noted that the vast majority of our attendees were in support of using this mechanic.
With the arrival of v6, the term Victory Points takes on an all new meaning with the Endless War missions. In an effort to bring the library of Astronomi-con's v5 missions up to snuff we have evolved the old Victory Points system into what we've dubbed: Unit Points.
Unit Points (UPs) are calculated as follows:
Units Destroyed
At the end of the game every unit that has been destroyed is worth an amount of UPs equal to its points cost (including the cost of all its extra wargear, vehicle upgrades, etc). Units that end the game falling back or off the battlefield count as destroyed.
Units at half strength
At the end of the game every enemy surviving unit that lost half of its initial models or more is worth an amount of UPs equal to half its points cost (including the cost of all its extra wargear, vehicle upgrades, etc), rounded down. In the case of units that start as a single model (Independent characters, monstrous creatures, etc), they are worth half their points cost in UPs if they have lost half or more of their Wounds on their profile. In the case of vehicles, they are worth half their cost in UPs if they have lost half or more of their Hull Points at the end of the game.
Special Cases
Moral Victory?
Each player adds together all of the UPs they have scored by damaging enemy units and any bonus UPs which may have been awarded by the scenario, then the two totals are compared to find the difference in UPs. A difference of less than 10% of the game's point limit (i.e. 150 UPs in a 1,500 point battle) would count as a draw. Should a player score more than this margin, they would be deemed the winner.
The use of Victory Points in the previous edition while still a published mechanic (page 300 v5 rulebook) was in many ways shoveled under the carpet in favour of the Kill Point mechanic - which in the minds of many was too granular to be effective.
Astronomi-con continued to use the Victory Points mechanic for their missions which called for these sorts of scoring and still found it to be effective and accurate. It should also be noted that the vast majority of our attendees were in support of using this mechanic.
With the arrival of v6, the term Victory Points takes on an all new meaning with the Endless War missions. In an effort to bring the library of Astronomi-con's v5 missions up to snuff we have evolved the old Victory Points system into what we've dubbed: Unit Points.
Unit Points (UPs) are calculated as follows:
Units Destroyed
At the end of the game every unit that has been destroyed is worth an amount of UPs equal to its points cost (including the cost of all its extra wargear, vehicle upgrades, etc). Units that end the game falling back or off the battlefield count as destroyed.
Units at half strength
At the end of the game every enemy surviving unit that lost half of its initial models or more is worth an amount of UPs equal to half its points cost (including the cost of all its extra wargear, vehicle upgrades, etc), rounded down. In the case of units that start as a single model (Independent characters, monstrous creatures, etc), they are worth half their points cost in UPs if they have lost half or more of their Wounds on their profile. In the case of vehicles, they are worth half their cost in UPs if they have lost half or more of their Hull Points at the end of the game.
Special Cases
- Vehicle Squadrons are treated as a unit when calculating UPs.
- Combined units like Imperial Guard infantry squads are treated as a single unit with a points cost of all the combined units.
- Space Marine combat squads are treated as individual units with a points cost equal to half the cost of the full squad - regardless of what models are in each combat squad.
- Vehicle Squadrons which abandon a member over the course of a game do not include the abandoned unit in any UP calculation. The abandoned unit forms its own unit and gives UPs as a single vehicle.
Moral Victory?
Each player adds together all of the UPs they have scored by damaging enemy units and any bonus UPs which may have been awarded by the scenario, then the two totals are compared to find the difference in UPs. A difference of less than 10% of the game's point limit (i.e. 150 UPs in a 1,500 point battle) would count as a draw. Should a player score more than this margin, they would be deemed the winner.
While the future plan for Astronomi-con scenarios is to ultimately move toward a Victory Points system similar to the missions found in the rulebook, in the short term we will be using the Unit Points mechanic to reduce any confusion on nomenclature with the terms in the new edition - and have evolved the old system into a new tool for updating old scenarios and designing new ones.
Unit Points - Things are looking UP.
Unit Points - Things are looking UP.
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