Public Order, also called Obedience (Greenskins) and Control, is a measure of how happy the populace of a province is, and likely they are to rebel against the controlling faction.
Various factors can improve public order, such as certain buildings and the stationing of armies in the province settlements. Other factors can be detrimental such as taxes, corruption, or invading armies. For Skaven, food strongly affects public order.
Mousing over the public order icon will tell you all the things that are negatively and positively effecting it so that you can determine how to deal with it.
Good public order also provides more line of sight over a controlled province. Low public order will reduce line of sight.
A province revolts if public order ever drops to -100, making it a crucial resource to manage.
Factors improving public order
- Not taxing a province
- Stationing an army within the territory
- Certain infrastructure buildings
- Appropriate commandments
- Character traits
- Random events
Factors reducing public order
- Taxes
- Looting and Razing
- Raiding
- Conquering cities and provinces (both one-time local penalties and faction-wide decaying penalties).
- Corruption or lackthereof
- Confederation
- Negative character traits
- Random events
Rebellions
- Not to be confused with separatists which form from low loyalty, or the Empire Secessionists who serve as an early game enemy for Reikland.
When public order reaches -100, a rebellion will form. A new rebel faction will spawn and begin to raid the area or attack the nearest army or settlement. If it takes over a settlement successfully, then it can reform into whatever the original faction was who owned the province.
Which kind of rebel faction forms depends on who originally owned the province at the start of the game, and the level of Corruption in the province.
For instance if the province was originally owned by a Bretonnian Kingdoms faction, then a Bretonnian Rebels faction will spawn. However, this can be overruled by corruption: If there is very high corruption when the rebel faction spawns, then it can be a Warriors of Chaos, Skaven or Vampire Counts faction instead, depending on the type of corruption present.
- Empire Rebels
- Marienburg Rebels (see Marienburg)
- Kislev Rebels (see Kislev)
- Tilea Rebels (see Tilea)
- Estalia Rebels (see Estalia)
- Border Princes Rebels (see Border Princes)
- Dwarfs Rebels
- Greenskins Rebels
- Vampire Counts Rebels
- Bretonnian Rebels
- Chaos Rebels (Warriors of Chaos)
- Beastmen Rebels
- Wood Elves Rebels
- Norscan Rebels
- High Elves Rebels
- Dark Elves Rebels
- Lizardmen Rebels
- Skaven Rebels
- Tomb Kings Rebels
- Vampire Coast Rebels
Sometimes minor factions will appear as a rebel army using their normal crest instead of the special Rebels one. For example, Averland may spawn "Averland Rebels" instead of Empire Rebels and will still just use the normal Averland crest.
Strategies
- Think of public order as a resource, not an abstract measure. Taxes convert public order into money and a balance must be struck. Sometimes it's easier to not tax a province in the short term to build up a reserve of order to spend.
- Corruption should be a top priority when it comes to dealing with public order issues. Weed out corruption, lest it weeds you out.
- When playing as the Vampire Counts, the speed with which conquered provinces are blighted with the vampiric taint determines how swiftly conquest into enemy territories can be consolidated.
- Sometimes it is beneficial to intentionally let public order get low in order to provide your armies with Rebel Armies to farm experience on (or food to feed hungry Skaven!)