Here at Virginia Tech we've got a neat little house rule that we just love.

One night while we were playing we got bored and each player grabbed one of his inf men and mutilated it in some way to create a character. i.e. a bent over Japanese man becomes "Tsunami Man", or a Russian with a missing leg becomes "hop-along Igor". And so this new character becomes that country's Hero. A hero has the same movement of a regular inf man, but it may roll 2 dice in both offense and defense, and have both of them count. A country may have only one hero at a time, and may be placed on the board at the beginning of the game in place of any other inf soldier for that country. i.e. Britain may chose to start it's Hero "Tom the hunchback" in India, so instead of India starting with 2 inf, 1 plane, and 1 transport, it starts with 1 Hero, 1 inf, 1 plane, and 1 transport. If the Hero happens to die, the owner of the Hero may purchase another one during the next turn for the same price as a regular inf man, but it must start at the capital for that player.

This rule is a lot of fun and makes the game more interesting by adding a new strategic dimension to it. It's also just fun to make the Hero.