effect · annex_country

Hands-On Usage

annex_country is commonly used in event chains or upon national focus completion to forcibly annex a nation. Examples include implementing historical mergers (such as the Anschluss or the Soviet annexation of the Baltic states) or special story endings in mods. It transfers all territory, resources, and troops of the target nation to the executor, making it one of the most comprehensive diplomatic/war outcome effects available.

# Annex target nation upon focus completion
complete_national_focus = annex_austria
country_event = {
    id = ger.100
    immediate = {
        annex_country = {
            target = AUS
            transfer_troops = yes
        }
    }
}

Synergy

• [has_capitulated](/wiki/trigger/has_capitulated): Trigger annexation only after the target nation has capitulated, preventing merger logic from executing while the war is still ongoing and following realistic progression.
• [every_owned_state](/wiki/effect/every_owned_state): After annexation, iterate through newly acquired states to batch-add cores or modify compliance; commonly paired with annex_country to complete territorial integration post-annexation.
• [add_state_core](/wiki/effect/add_state_core): Add cores to newly acquired territory after annexation to prevent compliance penalties from "occupied but non-core" states; this is a standard follow-up step in the annexation workflow.
• [diplomatic_relation](/wiki/effect/diplomatic_relation): Resolve related diplomatic relations (such as guarantees or puppet agreements) before annexation to avoid script logic conflicts caused by lingering diplomatic ties.

Common Pitfalls

1. Failure to check if target nation exists: Writing annex_country = { target = TAG } directly without first verifying with [exists](/wiki/trigger/exists) will cause errors or undefined behavior if the target has already been annexed by another nation. Always confirm exists = TAG in trigger conditions or within an if block beforehand.
2. Incorrect scope assignment: The executor of annex_country must be in COUNTRY scope; placing it in a STATE scope effect block will silently fail. Beginners often encounter this due to confused nested scope hierarchies (such as calling it directly within every_owned_state), requiring explicit scope switching back to country level using OWNER or an explicit country = statement.