Hands-On Usage
every_country_with_original_tag is well-suited for split-nation or puppet scenarios where you need to apply effects in bulk to all countries that once shared a given original TAG — for example, multiple successor states spawned from a civil war or dominion release. A typical use case is simultaneously granting a national idea or adjusting political relations for all German successors. You can also pair it with random_select_amount inside an event to randomly pick only a subset of matching countries, avoiding balance issues that come from triggering effects on every single one.
# Add war support and set a country flag for all countries whose original TAG is GER
every_country_with_original_tag = {
original_tag_to_check = GER
limit = {
exists = yes
has_war = yes
}
add_war_support = 0.10
set_country_flag = received_ger_war_bonus
}
Synergy
- original_tag: Can be used inside a
limit block for additional filtering, confirming that the currently iterated country's original TAG matches expectations — useful in complex inheritance scenarios to prevent unintended triggers.
- exists: Use inside
limit to exclude already-dead countries (those no longer present in the game), preventing effects from being applied to non-existent scopes and causing errors.
- add_ideas: The most common bulk operation target — uniformly add national ideas to all qualifying successor states to achieve synchronized policy effects.
- set_country_flag: Pair with this to stamp each matched country with an individual flag, which subsequent events or triggers can check one by one to implement chained logic.
Common Pitfalls
- Omitting the
original_tag_to_check field: This is a mandatory core parameter. Leaving it out means the effect cannot correctly filter target countries, typically causing the script to silently fail or throw an error. Beginners often mistake it for an optional limit condition and write original_tag = XXX inside the limit block instead — but the original_tag trigger inside limit and the external original_tag_to_check parameter operate at different layers and are not interchangeable.
- Applying effects to already-dead scopes: If you do not include
exists = yes inside limit, the game will attempt to execute child effects on countries that no longer exist. At best this causes abnormal tooltip display; at worst it corrupts the save file. Always make a habit of adding an existence check.