So I was part of the initial discussion about created provinces strengths vs ongoing effects that increase Province Strength, here. And I just saw this addendum question related to Border Ambush, here.
I am now hopelessly confused on what ongoing effects fall into the "all" category of ongoing effects with regard to province strength or otherwise.
rules on Province Strength... Base Province Strength: The topmost of three numbers at the right of your Stronghold gives your base Province Strength. It represents the strength of the existing defenses of the player's home lands. When a province is created, either at the beginning of the game or in the course of the game, it is created with the base Province Strength of its player’s Stronghold, to which any appropriate modifiers to Province Strength may be added (e.g., ongoing effects).
rules about Ongoing Effects... Ongoing effects that affect all things of a certain kind (such as, “Battle: Your Samurai have +1F”) or that meet a condition (such as, "Battle: Your opposed Personalities have +1F") change the game state. They affect all things in play of that kind throughout their duration, even ones that are not in play, did not meet the condition or did not exist when the effect took place.
Relevant Card Texts Last Line of Defense Event Until the game ends, increase the strength of each of your provinces by 2 and, after each time an Attacker destroys one of your provinces during battle resolution, he draws 2 cards.
Strengthening Protection Strategy 5G 2FV This card has -1 Gold Cost for each Artisan Personality you control. Limited: You build stronger defenses. Permanently give each of your provinces +2 strength.
Fortifications Holding * Castle Your provinces have +1 strength
Border Ambush Action Battle: Dishonor your target Personality: Give each of your Personalities and Followers at the current battlefield +1F, or +2F if they are opposed.
It was ruled that in relation to province strength all the indicated cards affected provinces in play, and provinces that are created after these effects resolve. Using the Ongoing Effects stipulation that is quoted above.
But for the difference in duration and types of things effected, the wording for Border Ambush is Identical to Strengthening Protection, but in each case it was ruled in an opposite manner.
I believe the ruling on Border Ambush to be correct. However, If Strengthening Protection were intended to work as has been ruled why was it not worded more like Fortifications? I.e. Limited: You build stronger defenses. Permanently give your provinces +2 strength, instead of the more wordy and confusing... Limited: You build stronger defenses. Permanently give each of your provinces +2 strength. The former is in line with several of the examples in the CRs for effects that affect "all" things of a certain type, while the later (and actual wording of the card) is not. The "each of" phrase in the text of Strengthening Protection and Last Line of Defense, certainly make it sound like it is limited to just the stuff that currently exists and not the blanket effect it has been ruled to be. And if it does why is similar logic not used in the case of Border Ambush. It seems the only difference is that because the effect applies to Provinces somehow that extends the effect to things that don't exist at the time the effect resolves.