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11  WINNING & LOSING


11.1  ELIMINATION   A country that has no territories, or no BPs and no income, is eliminated from the game.
Note that a country is still in the game if it has income, even if it's all spent on supply so it's got no BPs at the start of the turn, and it would be still in the game if it had BPs and no income (at present in Empires this isn't possible, but it can happen in some of our other similar games, and the rules might change).

11.2  VICTORY POINTS   Every three to five turns there is a census turn, at the end of which you score 1 VP for land area you own that contains population. You don't score anything for areas that don't contain population, and these aren't imncluded

11.3  CENSUS TURNS   Census turns are not indicated in advance, and are selected at random (the first will be turn three, four or five, and each subsequent census turn will be three, four or five turns after the last). The current score of the current leader is given in the game report (in the roundup section) each turn.

11.4  SUCCESSFUL ATTACKS   Each time you capture a land area you gain one VP for each population captured (if there's no population, or they're wiped out by collateral damage, then you get no extra VPs). Each time you lose a land area you lose one VP plus one VP for each population lost  (whether eliminated or captured).

11.5  FAILED ATTACKS   When an attack fails the defender loses VPs equal to the number of each population lost (none if the area contain s no population). The attacker loses the same number, plus one (so there's always a penalty of at least one for a failed attack).

11.6  VICTORY CONDITIONS   To win a game of Empires you must achieve one of the three victory conditions listed below. The game ends on the NEXT census turn AFTER one of the victory conditions is achieved if ANY of the victory conditions is met on THAT turn (it doesn't have to be the same victory condition, or the same player). If no win condition applies then the game continues. A warning is given in the game report when a possible win has been achieved (so you get warning that the game end is approaching, and a few turns to do something about it).
RUNAWAY WIN: You have the highest total of victory points, and your total is at least double the next highest.
KNOCKOUT WIN: You have the highest total of victory points, and your total is at least 40% of the total victory points of all the surviving players.
POINTS WIN: You have the highest total of victory points, and your total is greater than a target set at the start of the game (roughly the total number of land areas on the map).

11.7  PRIZE DISCOUNTS   All players who complete a normal part in the game (i.e. provided you don't drop out) receive a discount for future games of Empires (and some related games) in the form of bonus turns which may be claimed each and every time a player buys ten or more turn credits in the same game in a single payment (any discount that applies will be shown in your game report along with your credits).
A player that achieves a RUNAWAY WIN or KNOCKOUT win receives a discount of three turns (i.e. so that each time that player pays for ten turns, he/she is actually credited with thirteen turns). A player that achieves a POINTS WIN receives a discount of two turns. A player that is knocked out while still playing, or survives to the end of the game in a points win receives a discount of one turn. Discounts may be accumulated, up to a total of ten (i.e. turns become half price).
Dropouts forfeit all accumulated discounts, including those in other games already in progress (resignations may or may not forfeit discounts, at the discretion of the GM).
Discounts available to be carried forward (along with any left over credits) are listed in the end game report. It is your responsibility to ensure that your discount is kept up to date, and to inform the GM of your current discount when you join a new game (it's simple for a GM to check on a discount when you claim it, but would be very time consuming check on possible discounts by routine).

11.5  GAME END   The end game report includes a slip for your to return to us to say whether your want to join a new game, and what to do with any turns credits you have left over. If you don't return this reasonably promptly and still have any leftover turn credits then we'll normally put you straight into the next game to start (usually with the same country again). The same applies to players that buy starts and don't send in country preferences (after a while they get chucked into a game anyway).