At Okfest, the issue came up repeatedly and so I searched the book of war for applicable rules and here is ALL that I can find:
3.8.4. A missile Weapon is considered to have hit if there is significant deflection of the missile head (>30 degrees). Once the missile head has significantly deflected off a target, the missile is rendered harmless.
3.8.5. As an exception to rule 1.3, an archer who attacks with an arrow may determine and call a combat hit when attacking with such a Weapon.
There is no mention of the thrower calling "point", yet like archery, opponents often are just not sure what hit them unless they get it in the face. We dont really want to encourage javelin throwers to throw hard enough at all times to be sure the opponent knows they were hit clearly, so it seems to me that the convention of the thrower calling point has been a modification which is sensible and adds playability and safety to the game. Why do we not amend the book of war to be this specific?
The point also came up about the convention often quoted from archery regarding the deflection of 30 degrees to qualify a good javelin hit. But the issue then became who would make that determination. I say that the person receiving the hit is in no position to evaluate the whether the deflection was adequate and it should be part of the thrower's call and whether they even say point or call the hit off. The receiver would determine the reality of area hit, although 2 reasonable fighters (if there is time) will quickly discuss and decide. Looking for discussion. DOG