In the Independent ending, the courier will join the midwestern brothe

[TailAbNormal]

The NCR (and maybe the Legion if they don't fall apart 5 minutes after they get back to arizona) will be back to try and retake the Mojave after their finished with the blame games.

 

Having an army of robots and various tribes is good, but 1 city can't sustain a lasting war with a whole country, so what is a courier to do, why not join the most technologically advanced faction in the wasteland who are also ok with recruiting from the local population.

 

If anyone is unfamiliar with the MW:BOS, heres the link to their page in the fallout wiki,

 

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Brotherhood_of_Steel_(Midwest)

 

 

• http://www.wizards.com/magic/images/whatcolor_iswhite.jpgTake
  the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?'
  Quiz.

 

 

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[JimboUK]

Those casinos would generate an awful lot of money, why not use that to expand?

[pwinkle]

I have to agree with Jim. All the resources that the courier has the potential to gather before the end of the game could easily take on any of these wasteland super-factions.

-As Jim said, the casinos would bring in a huge level of income as it is. But then it appears that the plan in Mr House's ending (therefore the courier's too, when they steal it later on) was to keep the casinos open to any NCR citizens and continue promoting tourism to Vegas.

-The death ray at the solar power plant (you'll have to forgive me for forgetting the name, genuine brain fart right now :p)... Although it has a ridiculously narrow attack range it's stupidly powerful, I'm thinking pre-emptive strike against any key positions/people.

-The (massive) army of (upgraded) securitrons. Assuming you're not a complete anarchist dick and destoyed your best chance at taking over vegas, these boys would pretty much tear the arse out of everything that the ingame factions could throw at them.

-At one point House mentions having some epic sounding laser weapon based, anti-ballistics, 'iron curtain' type system based around the city... Tha should stop pretty much any aerial attack.

-The Boomers (again assuming the courier wasn't a complete and utter dick), your own personal air force. Enuff' said :p

-Pretty much EVERYTHING in OWB. Seriously.... just.... everything :p

 

That's probably not even anywhere near the total amount of stuff that the courier can gather during the course of their adventures, but you've already got quite a few good toys to play with there.

[JimboUK]

And the contents of The Divide could provide a nuclear deterrent, attacking someone with nuclear weapons wouldn't be a very good idea.

[TailAbNormal]

And the contents of The Divide could provide a nuclear deterrent, attacking someone with nuclear weapons wouldn't be a very good idea.

 

Assuming you would want to further irradiate the wasteland, anyway, I'm just saying that If the courier want to expand, or have an influence on any other area, He/she would need to either join a larger faction, or wait several decades till they had an actual nation.

[Talwyn224]

The Mojave is relatively in good condition as far as the environment goes, and more so, having a supply of fresh clean water like Lake Mead plus all the power you could ever want from the Hoover Dam means that you have the basis for building an oasis in the desert. Add the upgraded Securitrons to the mix and neither Legion nor the NCR can have any hope of touching Vegas, not unless they are prepared to expend themselves utterly in a ruinous campaign of mutual self destruction by launching a Pyrrhic assault on New Vegas.

 

In addition, all the points that jim_uk & pwinkle have mentioned would strongly suggest that an Independent New Vegas would be more than able to fend for itself. I would add NV under YesMan and the Courier's leadership, would grow into something far more powerful than the NCR or Legion could ever hope to achieve.

[JimboUK]

 

And the contents of The Divide could provide a nuclear deterrent, attacking someone with nuclear weapons wouldn't be a very good idea.

 

Assuming you would want to further irradiate the wasteland, anyway, I'm just saying that If the courier want to expand, or have an influence on any other area, He/she would need to either join a larger faction, or wait several decades till they had an actual nation.

 

If the weapons are maintained properly they won't irradiate the wasteland, what they will do is make any potential aggressor think twice.

[minngarm]

Well you're forgetting a few key points, first, new vegas can not sustain open trade routes and borders with its while ample, still limited in number robotic army (there is no guarantee they can produce more so while they may start with the numbers they need they will dwindle down while other factions can recruit new troops.)

 

Now why this is critical is not because its a war of attrition, which should be obvious now, but rather that the oldest practice of siege warfare is a blockade/embargo, and with that the casinos in NV will generate nothing due to lack of external trade.

 

Now lets look at the Divide, which as youll recall is being over ran with tunnelers, and infact it is hinted at that the tunnelers are expanding rapidly towards high population areas, including new vegas, so we have the additional threat there, and the inability to secure the divide due to its volatile nature, and the above inhabitants.

 

Now there is the belief that the legion will fracture and fall apart when Caesar dies. While in essence true, due to the nature of the Legion and its members I would present the arguement that through a series of assassinations and basic brute force at least one officer will rise to take control of the legion, and when he does he will most likely inspire it to a greater blood frenzy than Caesar.

 

For all his brutality Caesar was still a calculating man, but his successor will likely be more blood thirsty and power hungry than thoughtful.

[laclongquan]

External threat:

 

1. Legion. Let's assume Caesar will die soon, either assassination by Courier, or just plain illness. The infighting between various warlords inside Legion will fracture them, lessen their grip on raiders, plus their own splinter groups. There will be an increase of bandit attack all along the border with Legion land, and more aiming toward the richest prize: Vegas. Unless Independent Vegas can secure alliance with NCR, to get them provide security like before, an unlikely event considering the last battle of Hoover Dam, the Securitron force will be hard pressed to keep the peace around the town. Direct Legion raids will be from their slaver groups through Cottonwood. Mostly to shut down the Novac trade routes and capture slaves.

 

2. Brotherhood: Due to the last battle at Hoover Dam, NCR suffer heavy loss and will not be able to keep Helios One. Brotherhood of Steel will recapture that place and find the pathway to reroute power. The use of Archimedes 2 is very chancy, as they certainly wont permit any outside group control that great a weapon. One way to deal with this problem is to finish off their bunker before the battle, but in that case the region lack a strong military group to patrol, lead to increase bandit activities from vegas to the Mojave Outpost .

 

3. Raiders. Surely you have finished all four notable raider chieftains, right? Surely. So in that case there's just your local varieties. Their biggest threat is to shut down trade routes from Vegas to NCR, or increase protection cost to make trade unfeasible.

 

4. Deathclaws: Without major presence of human fighting force, deathclaw will return. The normal equipment of town and village militia wont be able to keep them down, as the Quarry miners can attest. They will threaten trade routes and even human settlements.

 

Internal threat:

 

5. Since Courier is new to Vegas, there's too many unknown things in city politics. It's highly possible the families will try to achieve bigger prominence, like the Gomorrah, for instance. There's at least one coup d'etat at least.

 

Potential ally:

 

6. Boomers alliance is a chancy thing. In the best scenario, the alliance will lead to them patrol the north east and airstrike as needed, the which is very expensive.

 

7. NCR: It's pretty easy to get a truce then an alliance with NCR. The leverage is the current population of NCR immigrants in Outer Vegas. Make a deal: Vegas accept immigrants and provide protection, NCR provide some sort of patrol from Outpost to Novac. Work is also easy considering the ready access to clean water in Lake Mead: good farms and ranches. The problem is that NCR might be exhausted temporarily after the Dam battle.

 

8. Brotherhood: Alliance with brotherhood only possible if we accept to no longer use Archimedes 2 and let them occupy Helios One. It will be a sore point between NCR and Brotherhood, and possible a point that we can play one faction against another. Truthfully, for an Independent Vegas, BOS with be a pain in the ass no matter how you play it, considering the huge store of prewar artifacts around the place and their obsession with them.

Edited March 23, 2013 by laclongquan

[JimboUK]

Well you're forgetting a few key points, first, new vegas can not sustain open trade routes and borders with its while ample, still limited in number robotic army (there is no guarantee they can produce more so while they may start with the numbers they need they will dwindle down while other factions can recruit new troops.)

 

Now why this is critical is not because its a war of attrition, which should be obvious now, but rather that the oldest practice of siege warfare is a blockade/embargo, and with that the casinos in NV will generate nothing due to lack of external trade.

 

Now lets look at the Divide, which as youll recall is being over ran with tunnelers, and infact it is hinted at that the tunnelers are expanding rapidly towards high population areas, including new vegas, so we have the additional threat there, and the inability to secure the divide due to its volatile nature, and the above inhabitants.

 

Now there is the belief that the legion will fracture and fall apart when Caesar dies. While in essence true, due to the nature of the Legion and its members I would present the arguement that through a series of assassinations and basic brute force at least one officer will rise to take control of the legion, and when he does he will most likely inspire it to a greater blood frenzy than Caesar.

 

For all his brutality Caesar was still a calculating man, but his successor will likely be more blood thirsty and power hungry than thoughtful.

 

Who needs war? Vegas generates a lot money, the leaders of various factions can easily be bought off. You don't need huge numbers of people to control an area, you rule the rulers and the rest is easy. An example is the British Empire, it ruled over a fifth of the worlds population at one point, Britain is a small island, it didn't have anywhere near enough people to do it by force, the same went for the Romans. The threat of force and a compliant ruling class is all you need, that'll keep it together while the courier and others get on with nation building. The Tunnellers would be a problem for all, in fact they could be a common threat the unites people. And speaking of The Divide, those warheads would be more than enough to put off any potential invader, that of course assumes you can get them back to Vegas.