Warlord

The Warlord is the first special governor and the sixth overall governor in Rebel Inc.

Specialty

The Warlord can convert his old militia into National Soldiers cheaply and quickly. However, the militia fighters have a different mindset to normal troops...

• Starts the game with Local Militia funded already as well as any relevant consequences.
• Local Police Recruitment costs more.
• Generating hostility will result in Insurgent capability boosts.
• National Soldiers cost significantly less and have higher strength, but a decision pops up every 150 turns
  • Disband unit. Removes it from play, and generate insurgent recruitment bonuses.
  • Pay bonus. Starts at $6 and has no cap, increases based on the player's annual budget.
  • Turn a blind eye. Risks generating corruption, hostility, and insurgent recruitment bonuses. The odds of corruption generation is always fixed at 70%, regardless of the game's state.
• All Coalition units, except the first unit, have increased costs, and their deployment time drops 0.4 per turn more. (Stack when Coalition fighting or losing fights, result to 1.9 per turn and 2.65 per turn)
• Starts the game with -0.5 global support level and +1 global hostility level.
• Reputation loss to Lack of Stability occurs later, after the 100th turn.

Unique Initiatives

For further information, see Government Initiatives#Warlord and Military Initiatives#Warlord.

• Blackmail Journalists (Government) - $0: - Gain +5 Reputation, but reduces Global Support Level by 1 and increases increases Global Hostility Level by 4.
• Civilian Shakedowns (Government) - Gain $12, but reduces global Support Level by 2 and increases Global Hostility by 4.
• Compulsory Work (Government) - $2 - Adds 3 additional Outreach Team to roll out Initiatives in the region. Reduces Global Support Level by 3 and increases Global Hostility Level by 3.
• Deploy National Soldiers (Military) - All National Soldiers cost $1, has reduced (90% or 10 turns) training time and +2 combat strength at the start.
• Punish Deserters (Military) - $4 - Increases National soldier strength by 2.5, but reduces Global Support Level and increases Global Hostility Level by 1.
• Intimidation Tactics (Military) - $4 - Increases National soldier strength by 2.5, but reduces Global Support Level and increases Global Hostility Level by 1.
• Blockades (Military) - $0 - Each Garrison generates $1 every 5.6 months. Reduces Global Support Level and increases Global Hostility Level by 1. Reduces Local Support Level and increases Local Hostility Level by 5 on zones with garrisons.

Strategies

Advantages

Unlike most governors, the Warlord doesn't suffer from the long training time of National Soldiers since they are trained quickly, allowing him to get these fighters in the field on-demand. He can also sacrifice Support level for various bonuses namely cash, reputation, soldier strength and initiative rollout speed. Despite starting with Local Militia and negative Global Support, he has more time to fight instability, which can make all the difference with the right investment without losing too much reputation. Furthermore, since Local Militia does not require Intel to roll out, the Warlord can get a head start on security and patch the support loss later on. The hostile population can be quickly dealt with the mixture of telecommunication and basic service initiatives.

Disadvantages

The Local Militia and most of his unique initiatives decreases support level while generating hostiles, drastically hampering stabilization. Despite the lack of stability coming late, it's usually unfeasible for Warlord to take advantage of these until he has many stable zones. Local Police Recruitment also harms him a fair bit, as it costs more and is vital in the mid to late game.

While his National Soldiers are cheap and fast to train, they are more problematic to handle than the typical Nation soldiers in the long term. The money spent on paying National Soldiers bonuses could have been invested on other, more important things, and ignoring them can and likely will cause a lot of corruption and hostility, especially if done consecutively., The fact that Coalition units cost more and withdraw earlier is also a big drawback, forcing him to rely on his National Soldiers sooner than he might be ready for as, despite training fast and being cheap, they are still a lot weaker than Coalition Soldiers without strength upgrades.

Governor Bonuses

• Can offer Opium to his National Soldiers on Opium Trail as a "Performance Bonus" when they become addicted, increasing the amount of turns for they to become restless at the cost of slightly reducing their strength.

Gallery

• 

  The Medic governor from the Southern Fever scenario.
• 

  The Geologist governor from the Before The Storm scenario.

Trivia

• Based on the name, appearance, and initiatives of the Warlord, he appears to be another militia leader as opposed to a government power, hired under desperate circumstances. His questionable ethics would therefore explain why the Coalition is reluctant to work for him. Strangely, the cost increase does not apply to Drones and Airstrikes, despite them both being operated by the Coalition.
• Being available since the game's global launch, he is the first Special governor introduced.
• He is the only governor not to be bundled or associated with any specific map since none of them correspond to him.
• The Warlord's sprite is later reused for the Medic in Southern Fever, and for the Geologist in Before The Storm.