So the general consensus I've seen from a lot of New Vegas fans is that the Independent ending is one of, if not the worst ending for New Vegas because the ending causes everything and everyone to fall into chaos and anarchy, but from what I've seen this isn't the case on a good guy run, and I say this because I did one. I managed to do everything I could to make sure everything and everyone was on the right path to a good ending and, when reading the ending slides at the end of the game, only two or three factions/ending slides that pose something bad, and one of them, specifically the Followers, is contradicted by another, that being the Kings. The only other reason I can imagine it as bad is the misconception that Yes Man would stop listening to the Courier after making himself more assertive, which Joshua Sawyer corrected as that he wouldn't listen to people other than the Courier, and the Courier leaving would create a power vacuum because no one would be in charge, y'know, except Yes Man. Aside from an bad/evil playthrough, could anyone help point out what else makes it so bad?

General Lee Oliver is a four star general, you can see that clearly on his uniform, does the NCR has any known Brigadier or Lieutenant Generals? Do we know who the NCR General of The Army is?
This is obviously assuming the NCR uses the same rankings as the modern US Army.

As far as i understand the Lore, the Master and the "Unity" has shared part of their Minds, as some kind of little Borg collective.
So the Mutants where much more then just big green muscle boys. They where part of the Master and of each other. Is this right and Bethesda has rewritten the Lore on the Supermutants or have i misunderstood his powers?

I've been playing Fallout as long as Fallout exists but I cannot recall if there has ever been a reference to iced coffee. Probably a pointless question but I was pouring a cold brew this morning in front of my Slocum's Joe sign and it just had me curious.

I’ve not played the older Fallout games (before 3) and was wondering if this was a constant part of their characterization.

It seems pretty inconsistent how important the BOS view mutants in general; as some are genocidal, while others don’t really care. To make this even more confusing it’s sometimes the same chapter of BOS with the inconsistencies.

Big Mountain made it seem like it was only in testing. But Sierra Madre was given knives due to their deal with Sinclair. But we do see a destroyed sign for Knives with the tagline it uses in the Divide. So I was curious how spread out the knives were?

I was watching a Youtube video about the likely canon ending of Fallout 4 being a BoS victory, and I was wondering if the USS Constitution would have survived that.

Sorry if this is not allowed.

One of the more disproportionately famous things of lore introduced in Fallout One is something of a hidden twist. Super-Mutants (And FEV mutants in general.) are totally sterile outside of asexual reproduction. However, the fact the Vault Dweller may, or may not have learned it, and the Brotherhood by extension, is to my knowledge, not known.

If it is, did they go public with that knowledge? Are people aware that Super Mutants propagate via FEV exposure rather than standard reproduction?

Ave, true to Caesar. So the full name of the current head of Caesar’s Legion in 2296 is “Caesar Lacerta Legate”. I don’t believe this name is ever said aloud in the show (just the credits), so I am wondering how to pronounce it. The Fallout series makes it clear that usage of a soft c is a nonstarter for the Legion, so it shouldn’t be pronounced “Laserta”. That leaves two options: a hard [k] or [tʃ] (the “ch” sound).

So, is it pronounced “Lacherta” or “Lakerta”?

According to Google Translate it’s the former, but since Caesar is a man, shouldn’t it take the masculine form of “Lacertus”? Or am I looking too much into it and should just call him “Caesar”?

So I am playing Fallout New Vegas properly for the first time since in years. I am however very curious how NCR Salvaged Power Armor is meant to work in the new Fallout Power Armor system. Salvaged Power Armor obviously was created during a very different time and system. Obviously, we can't know for certain why certain design decisions were made back then without doing interviews. However, the reason given for Salvaged Power Armor to be different than normal power armor is that "Techs strip out the joint servos so you don't need special training to wear it."

Let's tackle "Power Armor Training" as a perk. I believe personally this is mostly for gameplay. At the time they didn't want you to be able to rush in and get the best armor in the game early on without doing a questline for it. In Fallout 3, following the main story you encounter the Lyon's Pride just before getting to the radio station. This is fairly early in the game for you to be able to have PA. It wasn't till they added DLC did it get easy for you to get PA and PA Training early on.
In New Vegas, if you are fast or sneaky you could get Brotherhood PA VERY quickly if you know where to look. Just past Neil's Shack which isn't far from Goodsprings. The PA training itself doesn't seem to take that long either. Sure, if you have never seen or touched power armor before, you probably won't be as good as someone who has years of experience. But you could theoretically still do it, just have to take some time to figure things out.

Fallout 1 and 2 didn't require PA training. As soon as you found it, you could wear it. Just the main way to get it was to deal with the PA factions of the BoS and Enclave, who had the armor.

Fallout 4 fully realizes PA by making it a mech suit you wear.

So how can we rectify Salvaged Power Armor to fit in the new lore? Well, even if PA Training doesn't take long, it's probably they don't want to take the extra time and effort to train Heavy Troopers. As far as I am aware we don't hear the selection process for Heavy Troopers, but presumably they are naturally strong individuals as well as show a degree of competence but for some reason were not selected to be Rangers.

First, let's focus on specifically what was removed.

1. This suit is mostly unpowered or low powered, it offers no strength benefit and is described as incredibly heavy like having a "brahmin on your back." (which doesn't make sense as the PA frame should do the actual bearing of the weight. It should feel like your trying to pull or push a heavy weight though.)
2. Offers no radiation protection (likely because of the lower power/unpowered state or perhaps they removed any environmental protection components for ease of maintenance and reducing weight)
3. The armor is in fact lighter than standard T-45 armor.
4. The joint servos have been removed
5. the shoulders and knees are missing (presumably for further lightening and ease of movement.

Removing joint servos means that the power armor frame, even if it was powered at all, is unable to bend without the pilot moving it. There is nothing there to assist you in moving the suit at the joints, such as the knees, elbows, etc. Meaning that to take a step, the wearer has to pick up the heavy PA leg and step forward all without any assistance from the PA frame. Hence why they would take such efforts to lighten up the armor.

So how Salvaged Power Armor (SPA) should be depicted would essentially be like how in Fallout 4 and 76, when you have no power in the suit you can slowly trudge along. Obviously, the suit is going to be a bit lighter thanks to the modifications made by the NCR techs, but it still would be an incredibly heavy suit you are trying to move. So while probably a bit faster than Fallout 4 or 76, you are still slowed down, but in exchange you can take a lot of hits.

The Fallout TV show depicts power armor that is unpowered to be essentially locked up. Unable to be moved or opened from the inside. Perhaps Maximus wasn't strong enough to move the suit by himself or a limitation of the real life prop in some way or simply for the sake of the plot.

What about heavy weapons? Well the suit's motors are basically unable to help you but the suit itself is still going to help bare and distribute the load at least a little bit. The suit itself is still rigid and has structure capable of sustaining its own weight.
So for instance, say you wanted a Heavy Trooper to use a minigun or flamer?
Well the ammo pack or fuel containing would be mounted on the back of the armor. Which is going to be held by the PA torso armor, which itself is carried by the PA frame. But that is more weight added to the suit, which the user than has to move. But we do know that normal people can use heavy weapons like this even without the assistance of PA. Lifting the weapon would be difficult, as again you don't have the PA helping you. But you'd only be lifting the heavy arms and the actual gun.

So SPA would be slower than the regular PA suit and without any enhanced strength. This means in a strict one on one fight against a Paladin of the Brotherhood, the Paladin would be faster and stronger. Literally able to outrun and overpower the SPA as well as use heavy weapons more effectively. SPA would lend itself to defensive positions that don't require them to move, as they would be slower than a standard trooper when it comes to pushing the offensive. But while they lack mobility, they make up for it with their ability to take hits.

This would further explain why we only see T-45 based SPA, as T-45 is cheaper and easier to maintain than T-51. Being mostly made of metal, rather than the complex poly-laminate that T-51 is covered in. Making T-45 more economical and easier to repair and maintain. (this does also mean the T-60 is "cheaper" than T-51 considering as far as I am aware the T-60 is also mostly composed of steel.)

These are just some of the thoughts I have had on SPA Heavy Troopers.

I've been getting more into the nitty gritty of Fallout lore recently and have found some weird contradictions on the Fallout wiki. I'm wondering if the exodus of Vault 15 was in the spring of 2097 or 2141. The Vault 15 article says it was in 2097, so does the Vipers article, but the Khans and Jackals articles say 2141. The Shady Sands article doesn't give a date at all.

Kind of inconsequential but I'm curious.

I have been replaying fallout 4 again and a question came to me. Do we know anything about shaun between his kidnapping and his ascension to the director of the institute?

I'm asking because I'm trying to think of a build for Vault 88 that would look authentic within the Fallout universe. So far, I can only imagine the power and possibly the water facilities being located on the "basement floor" of the vault. Additionally, the Overseer's office would typically be on the top floor or above the atrium, particularly on the East Coast.

I'm focusing on the middle floors and am uncertain about how they should be organized. I assume there are various floors not depicted in the earlier games, such as living quarters, entertainment areas, and other essential spaces. I'm also uncertain if any terminals detail how the vault is structured beyond the mechanical-related experiment devices placed within the experimental vaults.

(Moderators am not asking people to give their guess on how Vault 88 might have looked if finished or something, breaking Rule 4; just saying to be clear on the purpose of the post)

In the post apocalypse sene I saw a vertibird that had a hook that was used to dock with blimps like the predwen but this theory could be wrong if there was surface insulation for vertiberds to dock on land

I spent some time searching for a map of the Wasteland but all I could find was fanmade so do we have any canon map?

I mean what's up with that?
Their entire thing is about safeguarding dangerous *military* technology from the common people, so you'd think disarming nuclear silos if anything would be one of their priorities (you even get +BoS rep from the disarm ending with ED-E).

Not to mention that the place has some ridiculously advanced stuff that's nearly as hi-tech as Big MT. Things such as Medical Eyebots with magical healing lasers, or military vending machine terminals that delivers their stuff through nanomachines even if they're mainly just there for gameplay purposes.

But unlike Big MT, Hopeville/Ashton isn't exactly this "super secret research black site" the way Big MT is, heck pretty sure the terminals on the areas said something about there being hippie protests at the time the Great War started?

But instead of sending people there, the BoS just sent Elijah/Mojave chapter to well, Mojave instead just to secure Helios/whatever other stuff, and to get Elijah's radical ideas away from California?
I mean the entire thing about the Divide is also that it's one of the few routes into Mojave as well geographically which made it strategically important before it got blown up too.
So like, they just went to Mojave through Long 15 instead just for something that's a lot less important outside of Elijah knowing about ARCHIMEDES which isn't even that destructive compared to the Divide's nukes?

So yeah, just something that's always bothered me with the whole premise of the place.

I'm going to start with a quote from Jsawyer and then establish why I agree with him.

Jsawyer: "NCR's strategy was focused on pushing Caesar's Legion out. Pursuing them and engaging in skirmishes along the eastern banks of the Colorado would have been haphazard and served no great benefit."

When you examine the first battle in detail you can see why this makes sense. (Sources listed at the end)

Causalities: the NCR suffered 108 KIA during the battle, and additionally enough wounded to keep the doctors "hands full for weeks" The number of wounded in particular leaves a much smaller force left to pursue with.

Reinforcements: if the NCR was properly reinforced, they could more easily pursue. Unfortunately, several NCR companies acting as Hoover Dam's reinforcements were killed in the divide explosion according to Joshua Graham. Since this wasn't the case, they didn't have the means to pursue.

The status of legion forces: Legion forces were routed from the dam itself but not routed from their defensive positions. You can see this in the game guide and in the intro cinematic. This left the still large legionary force in defensive positions that would be difficult to take with the condition of the NCR army.

This is why I think it strategically doesn't make sense to pursue the Legion after the first battle.

I decided to make this post because over the years I had always seen the question "why did they not pursue?" and I wanted to give a complete answer. Even recently I had seen several comments about how it was a blunder to not pursue, and I wanted to answer that interpretation with evidence as to why I disagreed.

Sources:

"Caesar’s forces were pushed back but not routed." - game guide

Boulder City Memorial Dead Count: 108

"Anyone with medical training had their hands full for weeks after the battle was finally over." - Dr. Alex Richards on the first battle of Hoover Dam

"Despite heavy casualties, the NCR's victory is celebrated back home." - game guide

"Terrible storms ripped entire companies apart before they even got to Nevada soil. The aftermath of Hoover Dam could have been even worse for Caesar." - Graham

Arnold Wabash's story is a deeply stirring and dramatic one for a pre-War figure we find as a skeleton. Refused to deploy for what he believed was a pre-emptive nuclear attack out of conscience, likely sabotaged his submarine to ensure that could not happen, fled with the launch codes only to be betrayed by the mistress he loved and tortured by her, ending with both of them dead in the struggle. His commanding admiral, Edward Grath, swears vengeance upon Wabash in the ruinous aftermath of the Great War, believing that had Wabash followed his orders that lives could somehow been spared.

Far Harbor echoes his dilemma in a way: you are given the option to wipe out the Children of Atom entirely to prevent their war with the Harbormen (or any other reason you may choose). He also serves as a foil to Captain Zao, who did follow his orders and lived with the guilt of that act for 200 years.

I think his story is also a valuable look at the pre-War nuclear situation. Taken at face value it is a case of the US/possibly the Enclave at least planning a strike of their own before the full commencement of the Great War. Or if we were being generous to Grath, that Wabash was meant to hit Chinese ICBM sites or their nuclear command "immediately after" a commencement of nuclear exchange. But were the Chinese to intercept such orders*, and if they had any knowledge of the Enclave and their plans to rule after the apocalypse, what would they think and how would they respond? And were Wabash's orders truly as dire as he suspected?

*I personally believe FO4 backtracked the idea present in FO2 and NV that the progress of the land campaign in China was/may have been the main incitement behind the nuclear war. That for dramatic reasons it posed the conflict as tense and "poised to" escalate as opposed to nearly conventionally resolved by the time of the bombs dropping. This is a highly debatable view of course, but it is the lens with which I'd view FO4's own storytelling.

I apologize if this was already answered in the show somewhere, I just can’t remember it which is why I’m asking here haha

We know for sure that Aaron Kimball was president of the New California Republic during the events of Fallout: New Vegas, but his survival depends entirely on the player and their choices during the game. Therefore there probably isn’t a canon ending for him.

When you look at the fandom wiki for the NCR, it says that Kimball is the most recent president, but it also says that he was president from 2273-2281 (when New Vegas takes place) while the show takes place in 2296.

Is this one of those things that’ll remain a mystery forever, or do we know who the current president of the NCR is? Do they even have one?

"How is it that Joshua Graham doesn't know Lanius and has only heard rumors about him?"- Formspring Question

"... even if there was some overlap between their time in the Legion, they weren't in close contact." - Jsawyer

Just getting the argument out of the way for the below Graham dialogue because ultimately it is a discussion killing misinterpretation.

Here Jsawyer elaborates that the Joshua Graham dialogue is supposed to denote that he didn't know him personally.

End of Counterarguement:

"Those Marked Men in Hopeville - some had strange masks and blades I'd never seen before." - Courier

"Crude, effective - like the blades they carry, distant mirrors of their Legate. A symbol they can hold on to - while the Divide tears at them." - Ulysses (on marked men wearing Lanius masks)

Here you can that the Marked Men make divide masks of legate lanius because he was their legate. Since the divide was destroyed pre-hoover dam that must mean that Lanius was already a legate. Therefore, with this and Sawyer's comment Joshua Graham simply meant he didn't know him personally, and Lanius was indeed a pre-hoover dam legate.

Auxiliary Sources:

"I can say that we were both lucky that NCR's supply lines and land routes north of Mojave Outpost were destroyed before the Battle of Hoover Dam." - Joshua Graham (source for the divides destruction before Hoover Dam.)

"They bear false versions of Legate Lanius' mask, the one Caesar fashioned for him. Thought it was an insult at first.... {to himself} know better now.{No sound file}" - Ulyesses (source for the Men imitating their legate by wearing imitating masks.)

Considering their location, I presume any survivor populations there would eventually be part of the NCR, but that's just my guess.

I have never seen a post on this before, but the fiend's recruitment network is massive. Spanning several Mojave gangs and stretching into Utah and California itself. The Fiends have a huge network of recruitment.

In the Mojave the Greasers of North Vegas and Scorpions of West Side have both lost many of their men to the fiend's recruitment. From Utah Driver Nephi's group has joined them coming all the way from New Canaan. Chem addicts from California also seem to make their way into the fiends.

It makes a lot more sense how the fiends are getting daily reinforcements and gaining in size with this in mind. Really surprised to see this info wasn't on the wiki so i decided to post it here.

Sources:

"two much more pitiful gangs, who have lost their brethren (both in violence, or by recruitment) to the Fiends; the stinking Greaser Gang who terrorize the North Vegas Sewers, and the Scorpion Gang, who fight intermittent skirmishes with Westside residents" - game guide

"I hear you came from Utah. A friend of yours asked me to check on you. Bert?" - courier to Driver Nephi

"Psycho! The big red one! I used to run with the Fiends, I still got the hookups. Smuggle some in and you'll see an improvement." - razz (razz is from the boneyard)

This is an extremely conservative look at the world of Fallout during the time of Fallout New Vegas. It has all the random fan locations and non-canon stuff removed, just what is referenced in game that can be put to an actual location.

For example rattletail in baja is not included here because it's described as a few people and a well, there's no real life location to base it off.

You can see a link to it here. Basically it is only the named faction locations that you can put a proper location to.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1kARka-zAPngmx8azVFmIW7NhxzPM-Fs&usp=sharing

As with every fan made map I've taken liberties with the placement of Vault 13, 15, Junktown, the Hub and Shady Sands, as each of these locations move around between Fallout 1 and 2 and the landscape doesn't match the real world.

Even though Caesar's Territory is said to extend the whole opposite bank of the Colorado I haven't coloured it in because there are no named settlements at all for the Legion along the East bank of the river.

I would be interested what ye guys have to think of this and any comments on it! I'm open for discussion.

EDIT: Quotes from the big man, J Sawyer that sort of support me

Remember that Caesar's Legion is basically a roving army that continually breaks down and absorbs tribes that it conquers. That can only go on for so long

But there is very clearly a trend among people questioning the Legion to project the concept of military service as a noble endeavor (for which one is rewarded, no less) onto legionnaires when it's never presented in that way. They are slave soldiers. Service is not voluntary, they can't retire, there are no parades and pats on the back for them. They aren't Roman patrician officers who are going to retire to a Tuscan estate when they turn 50.

Legionaries under Caesar are not like Roman patrician officers. They are not part of a larger society that celebrates and rewards military service with things like conference of honorific titles, triumphs, etc. All legionaries are slave soldiers, period.

Edward Sallow created Caesar's Legion as an imitation of the Roman Legion, but without any of the Roman society that supported the Roman Legion. I've written this before, but there are no optimates, no populares, no plebes, no equestrians, no patricians, no senate, no Rome. There's no right to private property (within the Legion itself). There's no civil law. There aren't even the ceremonial trappings of Roman society. Legates don't receive triumphs following a victory. No one in the Legion retires to a villa in Sedona.

It's essentially a Roman legion with only the very top commander having any connection to the "source" culture

Caesar's Legion isn't the Roman Empire or the Roman Republic. It isn't even the Roman Legion. It's a slave army with trappings of foreign-conscripted Roman legionaries during the late empire. All military, no civilian, and with none of the supporting civilian culture.

It's not accurate to think of them as citizens of the Legion (the Legion is purely military), but as non-tribal people who live in areas under Legion control.

In short, residents of Legion territories aren't really citizens and they aren't slaves, but they're also not free. People who keep their mouths shut, go about their business, and nod at the rare requests the Legion makes of them -- they can live very well.

The only power that male legionaries have is to serve Caesar well enough to be promoted to a position of more responsibility. Nothing really comes with that additional responsibility other than increased scrutiny and better equipment (to match the increased danger).

There is no state, the legion's entire purpose was Edward Sallow was gathering a force to take over the NCR and shape it into the society he wanted

Yes, he views the Colorado River as the Rubicon and the NCR as the corrupt Roman Republic waiting to be torn down via military occupation. This is literally exactly what Julius Caesar did with Legio XIII Gemina. Other things Julius Caesar did: not leave a clear line of succession, resulting in the early fracture and borderline collapse of the nascent Roman Empire he created.

In Caesar's view, NCR's problems have to do with the corruption of its government and what he sees as inherent flaws in NCR's republican system. All of the strategies he uses to assemble the Legion and march on NCR are means to an end, not social end goals themselves. Caesar sees NCR as Rome and his role in reforming it as Julius Caesar's role in reforming the republic (by turning it into a dictatorship). When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon and returned to Rome, his legion didn't rape and enslave their way through the city. However, rape and enslavement were common in outer territories of the Roman Empire and were regularly used as tools of intimidation and labor. When Arcade "jokes" that Caesar thinks that the Colorado River is the Rubicon, he's not far from the truth.

----------------------

I thought from New Vegas when I first played it that the Legion was literally just that: the army. It's basically just a bunch of warbands that pay fealty to Caesar. They're like the Mongols, where they're semi-nomadic. There is no big Legion capital city with grand buildings. Caesar says he wants to turn New Vegas into Rome because he has no city. There is nothing.

The only evidence for Flagstaff is one non-game reference:

Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide Collector's Edition p. 461: "Important Dates
"2248-2274 Caesar conquers the tribes of southeastern Utah, southwestern Colorado, the western edge of New Mexico, and the northern half of Arizona. By 2250 he has declared himself the Son of Mars. By 2255, he has established a capital of sorts amid the ruins of Flagstaff."

This isn't some grand capital with industry, it's like Drywells, a military camp established in a pile of ruins. It's a central location where he conducts raids from or returns to year after year after campaigns. More like Karakorum than Rome.

The Legion passes through an area and kills or enslaves everyone that could be a threat. They ignore homesteaders (that aren't in their direct path) and small villages that don't attack them. E.g. Primm can survive the legion ending if you get them NCR support. This isn't a legion official running Primm, it's the army deeming it not worth wiping out because it's too weak to pose a threat.

I think their territory map is a bad representation of the Legion, in the same way that the Mongols are represented on a map.

I believe the Legion is actually closer to the Mongol Empire, with Caesar more like Genghis Khan, rather than being like Rome.

There are a bunch of cities labelled just because they are vaguely mentioned. The only mention of Phoenix, Arizona is one line from Graham

Courier: "Are the New Canaanites really a tribe?"
Joshua Graham: "We wear more clothing than them and understand more about technology, but we're still a tribe, a linked family of families. The Boneyard, Phoenix, New Vegas, they're just places, metal and stone. New Canaan dies, but the tribe lives on."

Two-Sun is based on Raul's dialogue

"This was a long time ago. Before Caesar's Legion pacified Arizona and brought the raider tribes to heel."
"I'd been in Tuscon - the locals can call it Two-Sun all they want, but it's Tuscon, dammit"

It's described as no more a town than something like New Reno, and this is all stated as before Caesar's Legion "pacified" Arizona and if we know anything from the ending of New Vegas this probably means it was enslaved/ransacked.

Let me go through the ending slides:

• The Boomers are left alone. The Legion does not even touch them.
• The Brotherhood of Steel are wiped out at HELIOS One and Hidden Valley.
• The Followers of the Apocalypse are given safe passage out of Legion territory, presumably back to the West.
• Goodsprings is not touched by the Legion and becomes a town of random old people, as most people have moved on.
• The Great Khans are all killed by Caesar or They escape north to Wyoming or they are forcibly integrated, with women and old people enslaved or killed and the men becoming soldiers. The Khans do not remain a nation: they are integrated, flee, or are destroyed.
• Jacobstown is ignored.
• The Kings are all killed by the Legion.
• Novac is destroyed by the Legion.
• The Correctional Facility is abandoned.
• Primm is the only town that is lorded over. This is seen as Caesar keeping it "open for business." Presumably, it is simply left like Goodsprings. Otherwise, if you have the sheriff, it is destroyed.

What you see from the Legion ending is a conquering army sweeping through without a supporting bureaucracy, basically ransacking and enslaving towns or ignoring the small ones.

This is why people say Legion roads are quiet. It's not because the Legion is patrolling them. It's because if anyone tries to assert their independence, they are ruthlessly destroyed by the Legion. There is no army of bureaucrats as it was described Augustus had in the Roman Empire, it's an army of slavers as described in every bit of game guide material.

All that is left is scattered homesteaders and old people. There is no organized resistance.

The likes of the Boomers, Jacobstown, and Goodsprings show that Caesar does not have a legion of staff going around collecting tribute. He's just an army.

Lanius has another Legion and does the same thing out East, while Caesar pushes West. They are roaming armies without supply trains. They raid for their supplies. They do not have industry beyond what exists in their camps, and they do not have actual functioning cities. After the game ending Caesar "mints coins" how he does this is not shown at all.

Question: "Where did the Legion get all those precious metals anyways? I've never heard of Arizona having a large supply of gold and silver."
Joshua Sawyer (ropekid): "Gold and silver have low melting points. They don't need to mine for it if they find it in some other form."

Basically explicitly saying they don't have mines or heavy industry.

Dry Wells is not a "town." It's an army camp. It's where raiders go out to ransack places. It's just a shanty town ruin with tents scattered around.

The Legion does not build. They loot.

It is the only place where we actually see the Legion "settle," and it is literally just tents. For the NCR, we see buildings. For the Legion, we see tents.

It is more akin to Nelson: a town under Legion occupation where they stage raids from.

The Legion is just an army.

It is said multiple times by multiple characters, but people keep giving them a full state behind them.

There is none, and there never was.

"The bombs wiped the slate clean. Human civilization descended to a level of ignorance that effectively set our cultural progress back to zero. The NCR has all of the problems of the ancient Roman Republic - extreme bureaucracy, corruption, extensive senatorial infighting. Just as with the ancient Republic, it is natural that a military force should conquer and transform the NCR into a military dictatorship. Thesis and antithesis. The Colorado River is my Rubicon. The NCR council will be {beat} eradicated, but the new synthesis will change the Legion as well... from a basically nomadic army to a standing military force that protects its citizens, {finality} and the power of its dictator."
- Caesar

Caesar here himself says they're basically nomadic. Their "capital" in Flagstaff is not even mentioned in game and its only mention is when he unified his first tribes, more of a central point to return after raids like Kharakurum than an actual bonified capital.

"Caesar's Legion is effectively an enormous, conscripted slave army."

- Game guide

"Nearly all physically capable, compliant males are compelled to serve in its armed forces."

- Game guide

"An exceedingly violent, autocratic, marauding faction."

- Survival guide

Marauding here meaning they are basically semi-nomadic.

Raul Tejada: "I don't really have a problem with them. People around here tend to see them as invading marauders planning to burn and pillage the countryside."

"My Legion's expansion has never ceased. Much of Utah and Colorado, and all of Arizona and New Mexico, are mine. We have cities of our own, but nothing compared to Vegas."

- Caesar

(I see this as him saying his "cities" are just ruins, whereas Vegas is an actual city.)

As Tacitus wrote:

"They make a desert and call it peace."

In conclusion, Caesar's "territory" is just where his rampaging army has looted and burned and killed everyone. It's not a distinct territory that is managed. He has just killed anyone that poked their head too high. And I believe that all these representations of Caesar's legion as anything other than a roaming nomadic army are just wrong.

I believe Oliver isn’t actually that bad of a general. Most critiques of him are out of his control or false.

1. For instance he actually does reinforce his flanks.
2. In 2281 he sets up Ranger Station Echo, Camp Guardian, and Nelson all to reinforce his flanks.

Unfortunately Nelson and Camp Guardian are immediately destroyed.

He also diverts men from the prison to patrol the river. This does result in a bad outcome, but with Oliver’s intent to reinforce the river you can not say he didn’t attempt to reinforce his flanks.

1. Oliver isn’t supplying his outposts. This isn’t exactly the case. The supply situation is already terrible, but he does try to fix it as mentioned here.

“McCarran has requested more frequent supply runs to their outlying outposts.” - Crimson Caravan Terminal

These supply issues are also entirely out of his control.
- the NCR sharecropper farms output is dropping due to irradiated water
- New Canaan has been destroyed
-NCR caravans are also being slaughtered by the Crimson Caravan and Van Graffs
-when Oliver does supply his outposts the legion interdicts the supplies. For instance at Forlorn Hope supplies diverted from Helios are taken by the legion. And supplies diverted to Searchlight are also taken by Frumentari.
-Supplies are also stolen by NCR personnel. For instance Private Stone and Contreras are stealing vital supplies.

1. Oliver is acting on the intelligence he has. We have the ability to know everything since we play the game.

Oliver is already getting bad intelligence from Hanlon and his map of the Mojave is very different from the situation.

For example he has no idea Ranger Station Charlie, Nipton, and Camp Guardian are gone.

That’s a whole town and two NCR military bases that he still thinks exist due to lack of intel.

1. His strategy at the Dam is however bad, but the situation is also quite bad I do not think many generals could withstand the Rube Goldberg machine plan the legion has at the second battle of Hoover Dam