Country Specific Ranking Query

Hey guys,
So I used to have several sites ranking quite well and then penguin came along and screwed everything up. Some sites hit harder than others etc etc.
Anyway, sometime down the line (now) - I am finally ranking again, on some sites quite well. Problem is, Im only ranking well on "Google (pages from my country)" but am not in the top 100 for "Google (the web)".

Now, I have country specific TLD's and my GWT doesnt even give me the option to select my geographic region, its forced onto my country - so its not that.
My hosting is based in the USA, but last time I checked, this isnt a problem - as long as you have EITHER a country TLD/GWT forced to region OR hosting in that country, then its not a problem. Has something changed? Do I have to have both hosting and country tld to rank in "Google (the web)"? Of course, Im not talking about google.com, but my country specific google TLD.

Really annoying, because Im even ranking #1 in some cases on 'pages from my country' but not in top 100 for 'the web'.

Search engine optimization is always different for all countries. If you have optimized your website for your country then the rankings will be visible only in your country. To get it ranked in other countries, you need to optimize it accordingly and get backlinks from other countries as well to rank your website.

Hosting never affect the country wise ranking so just forget about this issue.

Well hosting does impact it, but only in certain cases:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/62399?hl=en

Not that we should take Google's word as gold. As for 'optimising' it for other countries, Im only interested in ranking locally, dont need international ranking. Unfortunately, getting local incoming links is very hard - so I have to make due with the 'international' links that BHW and other such sources offer.