I have played just 3 or 4 times, and everytime is the same: the Boomers acts nice (once you reached them) so I am nice back. :foodndrink:

BUT! If you listen to what they say, then they are xenophobes who wants a bomber plane so they can "rain death on the savages"! :chaos:

Thats not so nice, is it? Perhaps I overreact ,what say you? oo:

Their saving grace is their extreme isolationism. Besides their cannons they aren't a threat.
They lost men against some frigging ants, so they probably have very little actual training. Complete reliance on superior firepower tends to lead to casualties.

Ha! I'm the same as you OP. I don't know what all the ending slides are for them, but I kind of hope they realise that not everyone on the outside needs to die and they use their cool ideas for actual progression instead of just more war. But you know what they say...

As it is, I usually help them, purely because I want that rebreather. But on this (House) playthrough, I might just get that and then finish them - can't risk the possibility of them bombing the strip. Or worse, crashing their plane into the Lucky 38. I'll have to see what are the options that House gives me regarding them.

Your typlical NCR trooper has 50hp, while a solider ant has 75hp. It be quite easy for NCR troopers to be overwhelmed by superior numbers of ants.
Just because the bug is weak to the courier doesn't mean its weak to regular solider folk. There speciality is in explosve weapons which put them at real disadvantage against ants that explode.

They are quite accurate with there explosives which means they are quite skilled in that regard. Think about how accurate one guy is shooting at the courier as you try and cross that barrier? They could pulverize and army trying to cross that expanse. And in a couple of the possible endings they do. They also possess a good deal of technical expertise, They're able to maintain food, water, power and repair a bomber from the 40's.

Your forgeting Pistolero the reason they have such extreme isolationism is they have the fire power to scare off anyone who dare to tresspass. Especially if you help them recover the bomber.

A bunch of isolationist folks that like blowing others up and have big guns?

I'd rather wipe them out than give them a bomber.Safer that way.

So your murdering a bunch of people whose only crime is they want to be left alone.

I help them, but I keep them under a watchful eye, once they get the planes working, they could be a serious threat to the wasteland. The kid's tour suggested that they wanted to blow up the outsiders because they think most are fiends and raiders.

This could be typical "misinterpretation" but still...

Defiantly a "post-apocalyptic" faction and fit in well.

You can see their endings at vault wiki: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout:_New_Vegas_endings#Slide_6:_Boomers

They're extreme isolationists with an impulse control disorder when it comes to explosives, but they're not evil. If they get introduced to the outside world's good side, they'll stop regarding all outsiders as dangerous savages.

Oh, I forgott read through all of them... that makes my poll somewhat less accurate, doesnt it?

My first time through (House playthrough), I killed their leaders. Several reasons: one, they left a bad first impression with trying to mortar me just for passing through. Two, their attitude svcked what with calling me a savage, so they didn't earn anything in the way of respect or sympathy from me. Three, I was getting leery of them when they claimed that their goal was ultimately to cleanse the wasteland of all savages using their explosive weapons. And four, I was [censored] scared upon finding out that they knew they had intact bomber and had the means to retrieve, repair, and use it.

Simply put, I didn't trust them at all. The Boomers may not have been a bunch of drugged-up psychopaths like the Fiends, but I saw them as violent and unpredictable nonetheless, not a good combination of traits to have for a people with a fetish for explosives. The only good thing about them was their extreme isolationism, something that could very well have ended if they got that bomber working and start following up on their promise to "cleanse the wastes."

Sure, it was ruthless. And yes, it may have even been a self-fulfilling prophesy, since I may have only further proved to them that everyone outside their tribe were "savages." Yes, there is a lot they could contribute if they'd learn to open up diplomatic relations with the outside world, with their knowledge of survival, engineering, and of course, explosives. And yes, I know none of the endings indicate that they go on a rampage of destruction across the Mojave. But frankly, at the time, leaving them unchecked seemed like a dangerous idea, putting a lot of lives and Vegas itself in danger. And outside of making sure they wouldn't work for the NCR or Legion, the Boomers weren't really needed in the upcoming battle either.