Military intelligence?

[St Kitts]

Yes, I know - the biggest oxymoron of them all - military intelligence!  

I am playing the Isla Bonita scenario (how did you manage to get the respect rating so high from the beginning, Dave?  ).  I got a report that a rebel was attacking one of my construction offices.  When I zoomed in to watch, I noticed that all three soldiers on the island were parading around said office, and there was no sign of any rebel anywhere.  Does this mean they had good intelligence beforehand that such an attack was to take place, so got there first?

Or was I in fact watching the aftermath of the skirmish, and in fact the notification had come somewhat late?

Either way, it was first class work on my military's part, so I gave tham a pay rise!  

[Benevolent dictator]

Yeah, the military does know where the rebel is going to hit as soon as the attack message on the screen.  They run to the place and patrol, waiting for the doomed rebelious soul to show his/her face.  The rebel, on the other hand, sometimes takes the long way to get to the attacking place, and they tend to show up after the military does.  In that case, only the buildings that are far away from population centres are very vulnerable to attack.

[Howie]

I think the military can be very stupid at times too. I had a guard station right next to a very profitable mine. The guard station was fully manned. The mine was destroyed in seconds and the military mever showed up   In another instance I was playing a military scenario. I had like 21 soldiers. They were all just walking around in one spot on the map. I was hit by many rebel attacks of from 1 to 5 rebels. Every attack was repeled because the rebels always attacked the place where the soldiers were wandering around at. I figured that was a bug or something. At any rate I never lost a battle in that scenario  

[Dutch]

It happened to me that I had a very slight problem appeasing the populace and there was this lone female rebel (rebella?) that attacked from time but always survived, because she had about zero courage. Even before my military could come close she would have fled back into the woods.

She had become a fully-skilled rebel in the meantime, but I think it somehow proves a chauvinistic point that women just aren't cut out for the military life. When she decided to accept my amnesty and return back to civilisation I had her eliminated of course.

[Dictator_Matt]

I think the military can be very stupid at times too. I had a guard station right next ...

  I would absolutely agree with this statement!!!  When, I was playing one of my failed early attempts at 'Yes We Have No Bananas', the rebels attacked my Armory and not 1 soldier (including the General inside) came out to fight.  The rebels just had a good old-time shooting up the building, and when it was gone - moved onto the one next door.  

[Presidente Esteban]

I got a report that a rebel was attacking one of my construction offices.  When I zoomed in to watch, I noticed that all three soldiers on the island were parading around said office, and there was no sign of any rebel anywhere.  Does this mean they had good intelligence beforehand that such an attack was to take place, so got there first?

Or was I in fact watching the aftermath of the skirmish, and in fact the notification had come somewhat late?

What I think happens is that you get the "your such-and-such is under attack" message when the rebel first decides to attack the building, not when he's actually in position and shooting at it. IOW after you get the message, the rebel still has to trudge over there and start firing. This gives your soldiers time to react and get there first.

You can observe this yourself. Whenever a rebel decides to attack something, he becomes visible. You can use the Lists/Job or Lists/Pay screen to find the rebel and track him.

[Branden44]

 I remember one attack by a male rebel. The first man there was a General. I got to witness one of the worst  shoot outs I have ever (IMO). My General held his own for quite some time but couldnt hold off the rebel and died. Yet even after that the rebel survived. The second he reappeared attacking another building his luck was out. My military got their revenge.

 But I did give 1,000 dollars to every member of his family. If only all my soldiers were like that.

[Gen. J. Miller, Leader of the Redneck Rebel Army]

I've had an incident where I had 100 soilders and generals, but they would take forever to get to the site of a rebel attack, except one general who was able to get there in time and hold them off.  I put an army base on the top of a mountain and they tried numerous times to destroy it, but one general was able to hold them back until helped arrive or even fight them off, until one time about 20 rebels attacked him at once.  His family was well rewarded and the rebels' families were either executed or imprisoned.

[Mr.P]

Now those are the kind of odds I like Gen Miller!

[Coconut Kid]

This seems to be a brief but representative comment on the interaction of the rebels and the army.

What it indicates is (to me) is that the disposition of the army is not intuitive to the player.

That is likely because the soldiers employed at a guard post may not be in the vicinity at the time of the attack. One wonders if they were even "at work (available)" to respond to the attack.