Sorry if this has been asked, but why didn't the enclave just use an orbital strike on the Citadel and Liberty Prime earlier? When you get in the mobile base, the Enclave already has the Citadel targeted. This never made sense to me and if there was some sort of in-game explanation I missed it.

Bethesda magicka prevent them from pressing the button.

In all seriousness, the likely reason for not using the Strike on Prime eariler is because the Orbital platform was not fully operational or in the correct position.

As for the citadel strike, its simply a plot hole in my opinon. Maybe the Enclave were hesitant to destroy the Pentagon, who knows. It was never really explained.

Probably because the satellite has to be directly over the target to work. It was just a coincidence that it happened to be over the Rockland base and Liberty Prime at the time, hence why you cannot blow up Rivet City or the other targets, because the satellite was not directly above them at the time.

The Lone Wanderer can actually fire on the Citadel however. So it was apparently in the correct position to fire on its target at that point.

I wish you could fire at Rivet City or Megaton though....

Just saying.

On Topic: Yeah, I think it's just a plot hole.

That's what bothers me I guess. The Enclave was getting steamrolled and just let the Citadel operate. The only thoughts I had were that they still felt they could win somehow and claim the Citadel and its pre-war tech or they werent able to get the strike overhead until seconds before the LW bursts in and goes demigod on everybody.

I like to think an Enclave scientist had his hand inches away from pressing the button when the LW broke down their door.



It doesn't make sense that you can't, thats for sure. If you can fire on the Citadel and AAFB simulatinously, you should be able to hit Megaton or Rivet City. Especially Rivet City, considering its only like a mile away from the Citadel.

I'd imagine they were saving the shots because they were quite confident of steamrolling the Brotherhood without needing an orbital strike to do so.

Remember, that satellite cannot be reloaded. They only get a few shots, and every one has to be made to count as much as possible. Their conventional forces were enough of a match for the BoS that they didn't see the need to deploy a satellite strike on the Citadel; unfortunately, they failed to account for the Lone Wanderer.

Furthermore, as the majority of Brotherhood troops would have been in the field prosecuting actions against the Enclave, destroying the Citadel would not have eliminated the threat of the Brotherhood's ground forces at all.