Rebel Inc: Escalation - Sand & Secrets Review (Spectral_Orion)
Acceptable map on Normal difficulty (barely). Poorly designed for Brutal and Mega Brutal with an exceptionally frustrating luck-based, poorly thought out gimmick. It feels like it's designed to be ridiculously difficult for the sake of it and nothing more.
The gimmick here is that you must control four oil derricks on the map (or at least gather intel on those districts) to receive most of your funding. They're all located in random districts every time you start up a new game. However, the description of this DLC is a tad misleading: you don't gain "additional funds." You start off with $1 per month early on until you control those derricks, no matter which difficult you play in.
So of course, the Regional Census initiative seems useful here as you can gather intel much faster. Even then, the game's too stingy to give you even a decent amount of funding per month (you can still end up with $1 or $2 per month with all derricks under your control), which makes it very difficult to get your economic and government initiatives out. Even with the International Assistance initiative active, it feels like you can never get enough funds.
So naturally, insurgents will pop up in every corner of the map. While they will prioritize targeting the oil derricks, nothing will stop them from trying to control other districts (and they can cross multiple districts to reach an oil derrick with NO CONSEQUENCES WHATSOEVER). And you can only sit there and do nothing while they wreck havoc across the map, because you can't let them control the oil derricks. You'd have to blow your budget on coalition soldiers so you can guard them all.
But then, you lose reputation from lack of economic stability, corruption and insurgent activity. This map on Normal difficulty is already pretty tough. On Brutal and higher, it's nearly impossible without a lot of luck and trial-and-error. The insurgents escalate way too fast for you to do anything about it and can control multiple connected districts in less than 5 minutes. That's not a mark of a well-designed map. That's plain sadistic.
I only recommend this DLC to those who likes that kind of challenge. Otherwise, save yourself the frustration.