Even simpler, one could just say "with *1* Home SC".

I said that because of Russia

No, because 2 is exactly half of the supply centers: 1 is still the only number that is less than half.

I'm sure a few will have participated in a draw... but I'd say it was extremely unlukily anyone managed to solo win without owning all their home SCs (unless they lost one very near the end game).

I've won as russia without holding st. petersburg, not on this site though.

Thats the only example that I could see potentially happening. Munich is sort of vulnerable as well but its hard to grow when theres an enemy stuck in the middle of your home.

The only think close to the situation you describe was a draw with Germany, where Austria and France were equal strength and crushed me (took all of Germany), while I bunkered in Scandinavia and StP to await the 3-way-draw.

What is the English rule for which one has to say "fewer than half" rather than "less than half"?

The short answer, speaking as a mathematician, is that one should say "fewer" when one is comparing countable quantities (or discrete quantities) and "less" when comparing continuous quantities.

Less formally, things like weight are continuous, because I can have an object that weighs 1 gm, 1000 kg, *or anything in between*. The weight of an object doesn't have to be an integer number of grams: it could be 1 gm, 2 grams, or 1.5 grams, 1.25 grams, or 1.125 grams. (Replace kilos and grams with pounds and ounces, if you will.) For continuous quantities, one uses 'less'. So I could say "My bag weighs less than your bag."

On the other hand, you sometimes want to count two sets of things, and decide which set is larger. Here, the number of items in the set must take a value like 1,2,3, etc. For countable quantities, one uses "fewer". So I would say "my class has fewer students than your class": I can't have 13.5 students, or 13.125 students, after all; I have 13 or 14. Similarly, I could say "I have fewer apples than you do."

Finally, when directly comparing numbers (without units), one normally uses 'less'. So one would say "Two is less than three", but "Two apples are fewer than three apples".

(And for the pedantic (a group I often belong to), that doesn't describe usage for quantities that are discrete, but not integral. Thankfully, those don't come up very often in real life.)

nitish has it all right.

Well, nitish hasn't quite nailed it.

The simple thing to remember is: Fewer in number, less in amount.

Would you say you have a smaller number or amount of centers in a game? You would say number. So, I have fewer than half of the number of SCs you possess.

Now, to continue the example, that implies that our percentages of SCs controlled is a similar ratio. But a percentage is a proportion of a whole, and that is obviously something you can't really quantify with just a number. So it is an amount. Thus, the percentage of SCs I control in the game is less than half of yours.

So all you need to remember is, fewer in number, less in amount.

Oops, I had meant to delete my first line. What I had meant to say was, nitish is basically right (in his formal statement), but it's possible to express it more simply. And the informal description isn't exhaustive.

nitish and Katsarephat's first post in this thread is incorrect. 1 is not the only number that is fewer than half of 3 and fewer than half of 4. There is also 0. While I realize it is most unlikely that anyone would ever win without holding a single home supply centre, it is theoretically possible. nitish, you claim to be a mathematician. Back to ancient times for you!
I honestly can't see anything wrong with the original question, but it seems the answer is no.