Hands-On Usage
Commonly used in mods to dynamically assign country leader roles to existing characters. For example, you can promote a general or advisor to head of state after a focus tree or event triggers, without needing to create an entirely new character. The following example promotes a character to leader and assigns an ideology trait within a country event:
country_event = {
id = my_mod.1
immediate = {
add_country_leader_role = {
character = "GER_custom_leader"
promote_leader = yes
country_leader = {
ideology = fascism_ideology
expire = "1960.1.1.1"
traits = {
dictator
}
}
}
}
}
Synergy
[remove_country_leader_role](/wiki/effect/remove_country_leader_role): Remove the old leader role before adding a new one. Useful for implementing narrative scenarios where leaders "switch sides" or change ideologies.
[add_country_leader_trait](/wiki/effect/add_country_leader_trait): Append additional traits immediately after assigning the leader role, providing flexibility beyond what the initial traits block offers.
[promote_character](/wiki/effect/promote_character): Use in conjunction to ensure the character appears in the political interface immediately after gaining the leader role, preventing them from remaining in a "waiting" state.
[can_be_country_leader](/wiki/trigger/can_be_country_leader): Use as a conditional check before executing the command to verify the character is currently eligible to serve as country leader, preventing silent failures due to incompatible character state.
Common Pitfalls
- Omitting the
character field in COUNTRY scope: This field can only be omitted when in CHARACTER scope. Forgetting to write character = "..." in country events or focus effects (COUNTRY scope) will silently fail with no error message, making it difficult to debug.
promote_leader = yes conflicts with an existing active leader: If the target ideology already has an active leader, forcing promote_leader = yes will immediately replace the current leader, potentially disrupting the player's ideological path. It's recommended to pair this with [can_be_country_leader](/wiki/trigger/can_be_country_leader) or use [remove_country_leader_role](/wiki/effect/remove_country_leader_role) to clear old characters first.