Trying to put this in the outline of a rule:
Purchased infantry can be placed in any tt with an IPC value that a power controlled at the start of the game. This does not include “Allied” tts, for example Belgium raises its army when activated and this is its limit.*
These tts can be divided into “Home” tts and “Dominions & Colonies”. In most cases it will be obvious which tt belongs in which category; essentially home tts are those contiguous with the capitals, plus Corsica, Sicily, Sardinia & Ireland (probably; though Britain never introduced conscription in Ireland, there were plenty of Irish volunteers). There may be one or two quibbles here; Finland and Central Asia (i.e. Kazakhstan) were exempt from Russian conscription, we might consider these as Russian colonies.
Everything else we’ll deal with as colonies.
Limitations:
You cannot place units in tts occupied by the enemy (or contested?)
Placements in Home tts must be even; that is you cannot place 2 units in one tt and none in another.
(note: perhaps the 4 islands I listed should be treated as colonies for this reason - players might otherwise be forced to build up stacks on islands which they cannot transport to the battlegrounds).
Placement in colonies is optional, but you can never place more than 1 unit per turn in each colony, you can never place more units per turn in colonies than in home tts, and you may not place more than 3 total units in all colonies in any one turn.
*Or should it be? Since Belgium in effect becomes a part of France, why not allow it to be treated as such for infantry recruitment, subject to the limitation listed above?
That is, Belgium is treated as part of France, Congo as a French colony.
Serbia and Romania are treated as Russian home tt as long as they are contiguous with Russia, otherwise as colonies. That is, if the CPs capture Romania, a free Serbia is reduced to Russian colonial status. Perhaps this should even apply to original home tts that become cut off from direct contact to the capital through home tts.
Bulgaria is treated as Turksih home tt
Activated Albania is an Italian colony
Arabia becomes a British colony
Mexico a German colony :wink:
Portugal is an odd case out - probably make it a French colony as per Contiguous rule.
Otherwise, this seems to work out pretty well.