When I launch these here bombs, I'm not nuking Califerna and Arizona as a whole, or even the capital cities? I'm not nuking Shady Sands, just I15 and cutting off the path to Vegas or something? I thought I nuked NCR hard and good, and was declared so in the ending slide that they were still impacted 200 years later...)

Can anyone clarify?

Talking to Ulysses himself yields the answer.

"You think I care if you bomb the NCR? Go ahead."
"No need to bomb the NCR, just cut it's throat."

He then explains that with the Long 15 cut, the NCR will be "stuck" in California and probably turn upon itself with time (they have a serious lack of resources) and Vegas will fall without NCR's economy and support. Afterwards, the Legion will take Vegas and only one flag will remain over the Mojave, and Ulysses asks you to "Let that one fly, or destroy itself trying."
The ending slides will also only refer to the Long 15 unless....


What's odd is that if you bomb both the NCR and the Legion, the ending acts as though now you just said "LOL SCREW IT" and launched bombs all the hell over the place. Not sure what the intention is there. It's pretty clear though that the bombs Ulysses is aiming are solely meant for the Long 15.

Oh okay. I just couldn't be sure whether I was nuking the NCR, or just the Long 15(which would be damaging)

Thanks Longknife!

But what do you mean though by your last point? There were only two missiles I recall detonating.

I'm saying that the only part that's unclear to me is the ending description for a Courier who bombs BOTH the NCR and the Legion. It implies you bomb the [censored] out of both of them, but as you said, nothing else gives the impression there's more than two bombs, cause it does seem odd that bombing one or the other states you sent ONE bomb but bombing both seems to imply you sent dozens. So it could be either-or. The end slide description of that scenario could simply be meant as a dramanization of how disastrous it is that the two greatest nations in the core region just got their "throats" cut, or they could literally mean that if you choose to bomb both, you're choosing to bomb them to hell and back.

Bombing solely the NCR or letting Ulysses carry out his plan though is definitely just the Long 15. When you look at it that way, Ulysses definitely doesn't seem like a psycho. Hell, you could even argue he's rather compassionate, since it gives the impression that he felt himself about to do something drastic, but instead he stopped himself and thought of a way to do something drastic without actually damning thousands of lives.

His sympathies with the Legion are quite logical too, imo. Whether you agree with them or not, I would argue that without a doubt, the average Legionaire has put far more thought into what they do and their lifestyle than the average NCR or Strip citizen has. Caesar tries to teach them a higher purpose, the NCR and the Strip simply don't do this.