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Just a passing thought. For those of us who like to have some story to go with our games, how often do you fluff your battles as taking place on your (or your opponent's) home world? Despite how often the names of certain places pop up in the fluff, actually taking the fight to one of those planets is kind of a narrative no-no, right? Like, if we say that my orks are actively invading Fenris (home planet of the Space Wolves), then we probably have to accept that narratively things are going to go badly for my orks eventually, right? After all, it would be a bit awkward to headcanon that Fenris is in ork hands now if GW keeps putting out fluff talking about how Fenris remains firmly under Space Wolf control. And similarly, you can only invade craftworld Ulthwe so many times before it's going to start looking like Iyanden.

Sure, there are ways of explaining away some of these consequences, but am I correct in guessing that most of us just treat home worlds as off-limits for setting battles more often than not?

The only time "home worlds" ever enter into our games is if we're doing some sort of galactic map scale campaign.
Even then it's more of "OK, I drew planet C-9 as my HW", not "I drew Fenris etc".

Yeah, it makes practical sense for canonical factions' homeworlds to be off limits.

For homebrew stuff, it's a matter of familiarity with the other players. If you're going to make impacts on your backstory, you're approaching the level of collaborative story-telling of an RPG. I think you'd want to engage in that with someone you already know will respect some of your narrative ideas.

I have practical experience with evolving a narrative through games over a couple months. I primarily play in Crusade leagues at my local shop, and I write narrative snippets to justify connect the games (we have a prize pool for this too). Though I'm friendly with everyone, and we chat in Discord between games, it's still essentially pick-up games rotating through over a dozen people over 8 weeks. Most people aren't writing fluff, so the narratives become asymmetrically and you end up with each army having a different true perspective. We may agree on a cool moment that highlights the battle, but we don't necessarily agree on motivations or outcomes. Instead of building a connected narrative for the entire league, you're using the league to generate scenarios and opponents for your own story.

Having said that, while you could imagine your games take place on your homeworld without affecting anyone else, socially it would be awkward: you'd essentially be claiming the league is centered on your own faction. It'd just look immature, like you can't share your story with others by meeting on neutral ground. Plus you'd play lots of different factions, which would mean everyone and anyone showed up in your home system. It's hard to make a coherent story out of that. Why are your Space Marines fighting Necrons, then Tyranids, then Custodes on your home planet?

As it stands, my leagues are mostly stand alone stories about expedition fleets and independent operations. If I were to play games affecting the core of my background, it'd be with a friend or consistent group, as part of a planned campaign with at least some idea of potential outcomes.

My orks fight everyday and everywhere, even against each other .

With SW I never thought of fighting on Fenris to be honest.

I have thought about this too, since I have made an army that I thought I would fluff up as a Planetary Defence Force, later deciding to change them to a non-standard Imperial Guard Regiment, to explain them being in battle elsewhere. They can still defend their homeworld if it comes to it. I like to have the narrative straight in my head, even for casual or matched play. It's a good question that leads to a bigger one: what do you take into consideration when coming up with fluff for you army?

We never gave a thought on which planet the battle took place. The only important questions were who was fighting against whom and what type of mission was to be played.

The Ultramarine 3rd company’s cleansing of the Macrage’s polar fortress is what caused me to choose snow bases from them, but I honestly don’t think about what planet I’m fighting for. Probably not their home.

My Saim Hann are fighting over a maiden world that belongs to the Eldar. It’s not their “home” world per-se, but it belongs to them, and you can get your filthy boots off of it.

I mean, most recently I have been playing Armageddon Steel Legion, and humbly request that each game against Orks is on Armageddon or one of the worlds in its system. So YESS!

Furthermore, I've played 2 games set on Provosa, a shrine moon in the same system as the home planet for my superheavy tank regiment. It's a water planet though (think Europa from our solar system, but melted and with a few small islands) so those games are usually super narrative scenarios that involve either planetary invasion of a small island or an amphibious fight of some kind.

Haven't done anything like that since the release of 8th though.

I ran a mini-campaign once which resulted in
- Ultramarines killing Castellan Crowe, claiming the Blade of Antwyr
- Having to escape the planet they're on through a warp portal summoned by a Chaos Sorcerer
- Being corrupted by the influence of the Sorcerer and Antwyr
- Going back to Ultramar and fighting through the entire rest of the chapter to make it to Guilliman (who was still in stasis) and stabbing him with the Blade of Antwyr
- The psychic force of Guilliman transforming into a possessed/daemon primarch caused all surviving Ultramarines on Ultramar to fall to Chaos

Campaigns are good fun.

My Order of Our Martyred Lady Army fights ONLY on their homeworld...

Until it is rediscovered by the larger Imperium after the signal from the Blackstone Fortress draws Taddeus the Purifier deep in the Western Fringe.

The Cannonness Commander of that army has discovered the Praesidium Protectiva. The other Orders will be fighting across the Imperium to retrieve the sacred relics of their own Orders; once all six relics have been discovered, they will unite under Morvenn Vahl to form the first Triumph of Saint Katherine.

After that happens, my OoOML Commandery will be ready to defend the Imperium at large, leaving their homeworld for the first time since Saint Katherine herself walked among the living.

The Cultist part of the CSM army are from the same planet as the OoOML, though they will call both Daemons and CSM as their Cult grows.

All but the first brood of the GSC will also be natives of the planet.

Given the glacial pace of my painting, this project will take YEARS to complete. But it will be legendary.

really depends on the story we are going for. in narrative events we establish a defending side that usually goes 2nd and its their home world or at least where they are assigned to hold/defend.

in narrative one shot pick up games usually the players who like a story figure that out after rolling for sides, drawing open war cards and looking at the terrain layout/side picked. maybe my orks looted this place and are holding it to get the scrap out. maybe its the other way around. maybe there is a mcguffin somewhere that both sides want.

I'd be quite keen to do this, as it's been a long term hobby project for a while to build a 'home world' themed table with a lot of detail built into it.

I don't really get the opportunity to play campaigns though, nor is my army a fully canonical entity with a known 'home' that could be affected.

But yeah, any excuse to use the terrain for sure.

I had grabbed the Deathworld Killzone Kill Team box a while back, with the intent on painting all the terrain Nurgly organic meat and bone colors. But never got around to it.... This would have been for my Death Guard and Nurgle Daemons.

My Space Marine armies have been Desert themed bases for several years, but alas... no Desert boards at my club.

The only time I'd feel like my 18th would be fighting on Nocturne is if I'm playing against Drukhari or DG, as that is fluffy. Otherwise no.

I guess there is fighting on Metallica so maybe DG once again.

I haven't been in a fight in like, decades.

My Chapters homeworld was lost to Tyranids though, so no fighting on that world since.

The plan is certainly to have a lot of 'home world' battles when I get things set up. I'm modelling the home world a bit on Armageddon, so hive cities in ash wastes, separated by equitorial jungles. Imperials in the Hives, ranging out into the Ash Wastes for patrols, with Ork settlements in the wastes and jungles.

As I finish up various forces, I intend to put together some terrain pieces for each one, so I can do various home worlds. Mine workings for my demiurg, tau buildings, a chaos shrine or two, and some tyranid bio structures. The Eldar I see as being totally nomadic, but I might make a spire or two.

Neither for orks nor for DG does their homeworld matter a lot. My orks have been on a Waaagh! for a century now and been in fights on Armageddon, attacked a minor craftworld and in the Octarius sector (before it was cool) and recently have joined Thrakka's empire. Outside of a few runtherds and the old boss no one really remembers where they came from.

As for Death Guard? Attacking the plague planet is nothing short of suicide for pretty much every faction outside of two DG Lords duking out territorial conflicts.

Our campaigns are always set on a planet that has high value to multiple factions, but won't change the setting when blown up.