As a universal rule; all infantry fighting in a “homeland” tt gain +1 combat bonus in addition to other modifiers.
Homeland tt would be:
UK/Scotland
7 ANZAC (excluding NG)
E/C/W US & Alaska
All tt in Modern Russia west of the Urals (excludes Vyborg)
G/WG/SG
NI/SI/Sic/Sar
J/IJ/Oki
Szechuan
or possibly all China starting tt, stabilizing China/Japan front line.
Effects?
German drive into Russia more likely to be stalled at historical line (given the distortion of the map west of Moscow).
Balances in favour of Allies.
Bonus does not extend to allies.
Extend to neutrals under attack.
I didn’t look at the full list in detail, but some of these territories don’t sound like “homeland” territories to me. Alaska in WWII wasn’t a US state. The Baltic States and Bessarabia were foreign territories annexed by the USSR. And for that matter, why wouldn’t the Russian parts of the USSR east of the Urals not count as being Russian homeland territories? “SG” (presumably “Greater Southern Germany”) corresponds to German-annexed Austrian and Czechoslovakian territories, not to Germany itself. And so on.
I was thinking a lot of the same as CWO Marc as I was reading. I wouldn’t include Alaska, most definitely not Bessarabia and the Baltic States, and to Greater Southern Germany as well, though the last one I could MAYBE understand a bit more, but for me, I still wouldn’t include.
China is hard as well. I probably wouldn’t give it to all of China, that wouldn’t seem terribly accurate to me either.
I think Flashman is on to something but the actual “homeland” territories would need to be worked out. Fighting for ones home would make for more empassioned defense. I could see bumping up the defense values for atleast one round of every defensive unit in a truly homeland territory.
A less powerful defense than +1 but which gives an higher odds of survival for defender is to allow first strike roll to all ground units in homeland. Up to you to decide if it is only for the first combat round or all combat rounds.
That way, Infantry Def 2, MI Def 2, Artillery Def 2, Tank Def 3 get a pre-emptive shot at their defense value. AAA doesn’t change since its roll is already first strike on planes.
It can simulate the advantage of knowing homeland TTy and being able to make all kind of ambushes due to such knowledge.
In combat resolution, every succesful hit will diminish the number of attack rolls, hence increase the defender survival.
