Wiki

effect · set_oob

Definition

  • Supported scope:COUNTRY
  • Supported target:none

Description

Registers an Order of Battle (OOB) file to be loaded for a country at game start, replacing any previously registered OOB (with no key) on that country.
Only intended to be used within history files.

Example:
set_oob = "ENG_1936"

Hands-On Notes

Hands-on notes are AI-generated and checked against the vanilla command vocabulary — treat them as a starting point, not authoritative reference. The definition above is the game's own documentation.

Hands-On Usage

set_oob is primarily used in history files (history/countries/) to assign an order of battle file to a nation at game start, and is commonly seen in mods to specify custom OOBs for new or replaced nations. When a mod needs to completely reshape a nation's starting army composition, it only requires a single call to set_oob in the top-level effect block of that nation's history file to override the original registration.

# history/countries/ENG - Britain.txt
capital = 123
set_oob = "ENG_1936_mymod"   # Use the mod's custom OOB file

Synergy

  • [division_template](/wiki/effect/division_template): The division templates referenced in the OOB file must be defined beforehand in the history file using division_template. Both work together to determine the appearance and capabilities of your starting units.
  • [add_ideas](/wiki/effect/add_ideas): Typically paired with set_oob in the same history file to grant the nation starting national focuses, ensuring the army composition and national state are initialized together.
  • [add_manpower](/wiki/effect/add_manpower): Use alongside set_oob to ensure the nation has sufficient manpower to support the units defined in the OOB, preventing negative manpower situations.

Common Pitfalls

  1. Misuse in events or decisions: set_oob is designed solely for initialization in history files. If placed in the option block of a country_event or other in-game triggered effect blocks like hidden_effect, behavior becomes unpredictable. For dynamic unit composition changes during gameplay, use alternative methods instead (such as combinations of create_corps_commander, delete_units, etc.).
  2. OOB file path or naming errors: The set_oob = "ENG_1936_mymod" reference requires the actual file to be located at history/units/ENG_1936_mymod.txt. Filename casing must match the string exactly; otherwise, the nation's units will silently fail to load at game start with no clear error message.