that's only because he allowed you, the courier, into his casino. we're assuming the Courier is dead, which means that never happened, which means that large secure door stays shut tight.

Boomers would be fine.

The NCR are spread thin and the Legion also are meant to have a huge military, which we unfortunately don't get to see much of in game.


With the smaller factions, most would carry on as is without major changes. No courier to interfere and make or break alliances, more would probably end up dead.



I was gently teasing Colonel Martyr...

Benny plus stealth boy and sneaking behind Victor or some other robot Mr.House sends out. Benny follows that robot inside.

unless he could make it look like Cesar and the NCR killed each other off, in which case even if the NCR did come to see what had happened, they wouldn't find anything other than two groups that had achieved mutual destruction. besides, they mention that the NCR is falling apart in a lot of places in the plot line, and if he had let the president be killed at the dam, it would turn to complete anarchy... which wouldn't effect him in the least.

If he cannot svcker Benny into entering the Lucky 38 where he can kill him.....his only real option is to find someone he can cut a deal with to act as his agent. About the only people with the skills he needs are the Rangers. Hanlon knows that Kimball and Oliver are leading the NCR to it's destruction....maybe he is desperate enough to make some sort of deal behind thier backs. I cannot think of anyone else in the game that House would know of that could help him. The Remnants could probably blitz the Fort, apply the chip then run...but he doesn't know of them and I doubt they'd help him anyway, and them storming the Tops to kill Benny and take the chip would cause even more problems.

Victor is a program, not a specific Securitron. No one comes from or goes into the Lucky 38. He just transfers the program from Securitrons as he needs, which is why Victor is always a step ahead of you.

NCR is having trouble I'll agree but on the edge of falling apart completely. Kimball being killed at the dam could back fire big time on the Legion. A president getting killed can give a nation a real motivational drive. It could give NCR the drive and motivation it needs to finally go all out on the Legion.

Again killing off NCR in the Mojave will be bad for Mr.House. Why clean up the strip and create the families for NCR just to kill them off. Mr.House wants money not a war with NCR. He just don't want to be swallowed up by NCR.

But doesn't he pretty much kick the NCR out at the end of the game if you side with him? and you end up killing them if you fail a very high speech check, so isn't war with the NCR what he was expecting all along?

Good point. Still Benny's smart he'll find away. Also if you did not do it another person would have taken that job. Another person would be asked to go in. If not a robot would take it into the Lucky 38. At some point the chip will have to get inside which means the door has to open at some point.

True, but there are only two real ways that could happen.

Benny puts the chip somewhere a securitron will find it, then stealthboys in behind them and hopes that he doesn't get spotted before he can find out how to shut off house.

Benny gets killed and the chip is taken in by either a new hired goon, or someone that works for Cesar or the NCR follows in after them and has the same problem Benny had.

...

No, wait, I think I just figured it out.

Benny gets Yesman to pose as a normal securitron, then follows him inside of the building when he goes to take the chip to house. I bet that Yesman would be able to figure out where House was within moments.

While any scenario with any one of the major factions coming out on top is just as plausible as any other, I tend to think there are two most likely events:

1. House discovers Yes Man's tap on his network, realizes Benny is taking too long bringing in the chip and computes his plot. He intercepts Benny, recovers the Chip and manages to upgrade the securitrons and the strip. Since he needs the power of the dam and a reasonably secure Wasteland, he sides with the NCR (after the Legion has whittled them down to a controllable size) and destroys or routes the Legion. He then negotiates independence for The Strip.

2. Benny is killed by the Legion and Cesar dumps the chip into the lake. He is ultimately defeated by the NCR and the BoS who have entered the fray out of abiding self interest. The war has left all three major factions on a somewhat equal footing, lending a sort of equilibrium and stability to the region for many years. Never able to upgrade his systems, Mr. House will not live much into the 24th Century and dies quietly and without fanfare while around him civilization comes to Nevada.

Whichever scenario occurs, by the turn of the 25th Century the harnessing of quantum plasma energy brings cheap and portable power to the masses. Consequently fresh water becomes available through distillation. The world's economy shifts from an energy based one of humanity massed in cities, to an agrarian one with the population dispersed.

Benny steps on a landmine on his way to Vegas. Caesar has an aneurysm. Legate Lanius takes over but dies when a group of Fiends mauls him and rips him to shreds. Goodsprings gets razed to the ground but because Easy Pete did some work with dynamite, the Powder Gangers are killed by a series of booby traps. The Brotherhood of Steel leaves their bunker finally but run into a Ranger Veteran platoon on their way to HELIOS One and are killed off in the ensuing firefight. The NCR spends another four years trying to secure the region and wrest control of Vegas from Mr. House but eventually pull out of the Mojave due to national debt and lower public support for the occupation. Caesar's Legion, with no leadership, dissolves into a gaggle of tribes that fight with each other for control of the Empire but in the end only accomplish in tearing up the Empire and eventually fading into obscurity. Mr. House, lacking the help he needs, eventually dies after ten years when a former Caesar's Legion tribe raids the Lucky 38 in the dead of night and seizes the casino from him. The Great Khans decide to leave the area completely and head to Colorado where they can start anew. The casino families go to war with each other over who should control Vegas, but after eight long years of attrition are left weak, and are promptly killed off by the Fiends. Vegas is eventually taken by the Fiends and becomes an anything goes six-and-drugs baazar. However, after they run out of drugs (since the Great Khans left the area) the entire group goes into withdrawls. In the pains and aches of withdrawl symptoms, the Fiends are almost completely killed off by the Boomers who have since run out of artillery shells and decided to take preemptive action against the savages of the wastes. However their victory doesn't last long because they eventually find a suitcase nuke that was left behind by a Chinese spy who died before he could deliver the package. Boomer engineers accidentally set off the nuclear weapon at Nellis and kill off everyone within a five mile radius.

In short, nobody wins, everyone loses.

He wasn't expecting war, only a show of force to boot their tails out of Vegas. NCR as an entity is very snakish, which is why I can't stand them. Mr. House has the independence of Vegas on his mind, he feels the NCR would never agree to him having control of the region, and rightly so. The NCR are like locusts, they fly through a region and use every resource, and once you're region is dry, you better hope to God some foreign army doesnt come through, because they wont care. Thats like Vegas, their reason for wanting it was Hoover Dam largely.

Yes, but my point was I don't think that he would really care that much if all of the NCR force in the area was killed by the Legion as long as he could blame them, that was the rest of NCR wouldn't come after him for it... not that It would matter that much, since by then he would have his securitron army, and he would be able to stand against almost anything that came along.

Well House has you save the President in one mission, stating that if NCR loses Kimball, they would blame New Vegas, which would likely lead to being slapped with an Embargo, but if Kimball survives and you take the Dam for House, only Kimball and his incompetence will be blamed, not New Vegas.

which by my reasoning would mean that if it looks like the local NCR was wiped out by the Legion, then he would catch the blame and not house. Or he could do the exact same thing you did at the end after his army is upgraded, and ask them to leave. either way, the house always wins.

At some point House would have been fed up with waiting, he'd have contacted Swank and ordered him to execute Benny and take back the chip. [as Swank can be convinced to help the Courier work against Benny]. With the chip in hand he waits for the battle of Hoover dam as its unlikely he could access the bunker under the fort. [and without the chip Caeser never enters it].
He may also have simply "let" Benny slip inside the Lucky 38 and execute him on the spot taking back the chip.

He would send the upgraded robots he does have at is disposal to attack The Fort while the Legion is attacking the dam. Most of them would provide a distraction by gunning strait for Caesar while a few head for the bunker. With the bulk of the legion busy with the NCR and the ones at the Fort defending Caesar the bunker could be handled by one or two upgraded robots. The chip is required to upgrade them to Mark II the bunker is for awakening the grand army.

It should be noted that House MUST have had a plan to reach the bunker had the Courier delivered the chip uninterrupted. Unless he new the Courier was "special" and ensured he'd be the one to take the chip to begin with.

The Legion wouldn't miss the Courier. The only real help the Courier provides to the Legion is getting medical help for Caesar.

He did have a plan....Benny. The Courier gets the job he originally planned to offer Benny, to be his troubleshooter and right hand man. He tells you he had thought he could buy his loyalty but had underestimated his ambition. Benny, being the charming rascal that he was, wanted no part of being the Enforcer for a pre-war techno-lich and elected to take his destiny into his own hands. After talking to him in Caesar's tent...and finally getting the truth out of him...I actually came to regret having to kill him. Since killing him was necessary, I chose to face him in the Arena so that he could die with his dignity intact..it was the least I could do for him.

I would say unless provoked House would sit on his plans less the strip gets wiped out internally.

Caesars Legion would make massive inroads in the south by cotton wood cove and Fort Hope, but would be held back at the dam, due to no support.
All around the NCR will get a bloody uprising and insurgancy forcing them to put it down harshly at great loss.
The dam and Vegas will become a bulge in CL's new borders festering away at their flanks not fully falling but demoralizing both sides.
The border Outpost will be the new front line, and all those recruits will be hardened by trial by fire.

Powder gangers, will be crushed and the few left will seek shelter anywhere.
The Khans will seek more and more vengence but will flip on the legion first chance, leaving the Mojave after killing as many NCR as possible seeing the legions true nature.
The fiends will be used as human shields, death squads by the legion mitigating their death warrants untill the never likely defeat of NCR.
This will lead the legion to have first hand contact of drugs, and given the toll on the battlefield and discipline of its leaders, will result in many becoming addicted.
A disruption that may spread back east to their home lands, and creating a problem long term.

Caesar would die at some point, as would the NCR's president Kimball.

The Mutants would find refugees on their doorstep leading to many issues if not hostility equaling genocide.

It would make for a very, very short game.

-Intro Scene-

Ron Pearlman: And so ended the tale of the Courier who died in Goodsprings never delivering the package.

:laugh:

The npcs would still be looking for someone to give fetch quests to.

Well, gods forbid they do anything for themselves... :rolleyes: