"A unique and deeply engaging political/military strategic simulation from the creator of Plague Inc. Balance competing civilian and military priorities and deal with a deadly insurgency in order to stabilise a war-torn country."
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1088790/Rebel_Inc_Escalation/
Has anyone got this ? It got a huge update today. Wondering how it plays.
I'm holding out till after Early Access. It looks promising, though.
I've only played the first scenario. It reminds me a bit of what Afghanistan '11 was going for, only in real-time and on a larger scale. I found the actual shuffling of infantry to be more whack-a-mole busywork than engaging tactical decision-making - maybe this changes in later scenarios? - but the political decision making / relationship balancing was quite fun.
I especially liked the end-scenario mechanic for peace accords / de-escalation with the insurgents. A sequence of decision events pop up discussing things like reintegration of remaining insurgents into society, whether or not they'll be punished, who will pay for reparations, etc.. You're basically just given the choice between giving into their demands, taking a hard-line, or choosing the in-between compromise. I don't recall the specific details, but the likelihood of getting a favorable outcome when you take a hard-line is higher if you've been winning against the insurgents and effectively repairing/maintaining infrastructure and winning the "hearts and minds" of the locals. If you've been doing a bad job, you can still choose to take a hard-line, but if the insurgents have leverage they might refuse and go back to their ditches to keep fighting you.
The first scenario was simple enough that I kicked the insurgents' asses fairly thoroughly once I got hang of the controls, so when the peace talks came, I shut down every one of their demands quite effectively as they had zero leverage against me. While I enjoyed the time I did spend, I got the impression that cranking up the number of things to juggle wouldn't necessarily make it a more fun or deep experience, so I haven't had the motivation to revisit the game past my first dabble.
I played it and beat all scenarios on the iOS version. An enjoyable and interesting title, but a little "gamey". I see no reason to go back to any of the scenarios after completing a single playthrough.