trigger · is_government_in_exile

Hands-On Usage

is_government_in_exile is commonly used in exile-related mod scenarios, such as determining whether a country is in exile status to decide whether to unlock specific decisions, national focuses, or diplomatic options. For example, you can restrict exiled governments from executing certain national focuses that require actual territory control, or provide exile-exclusive decisions like "Seek Asylum".

# available block of a certain decision: only exiled governments can see this option
available = {
    is_government_in_exile = yes
    any_allied_country = {
        controls_state = { state = ROOT }
    }
}

Synergy

• [has_capitulated](/wiki/trigger/has_capitulated): Exiled governments often accompany capitulation status. Using both together allows precise distinction between "capitulated and in exile" versus "in exile but still resisting".
• [controls_state](/wiki/trigger/controls_state): Exiled governments typically control no states of their own nation. Combined usage can verify whether the country has truly lost all territorial control.
• [end_exile](/wiki/effect/end_exile): Use in tandem within effect blocks. When conditions are met (such as recapturing the capital), end the exile status, forming a complete logic chain of condition-checking and execution with the trigger.
• [has_country_flag](/wiki/trigger/has_country_flag): Mark special phases of exiled governments with custom flags. Using alongside this trigger enables finer-grained control over exile storyline branches.

Common Pitfalls

1. Scope confusion: This trigger only works in COUNTRY scope. Beginners often mistakenly write it directly in the limit block of STATE scope, causing script errors or silent failures. The correct approach is to first switch to country scope using owner or CONTROLLER before calling the trigger.
2. Conflating exile with capitulation: is_government_in_exile = yes and has_capitulated = yes are not equivalent—a country can capitulate without going into exile, or may enter exile through become_exiled_in without being formally capitulated. Mixing the two will cause logic errors in conditional checks.