Yeah, who knows. For the sake of filling a plot-hole, I just assume that PP was needed in some way, and that other alternatives could be used, but PP was the quickest and most convenient (and just dropping it in the water was, for whatever reason, a non-option).

Just not enough information to fill the gaps in logic.

The rate of death from mutant attacks versus killing 99% of all humanoid life in North America is quite a harsh difference.

There's also the fact that I don't see rebuilt America surviving in a rebuilt post-nuclear world with such a small population and with the genocide of their own wastes presenting such a massive threat to other post-nuclear nations.

I would imagine a sort of coalition of post-war successor states outside of America banding together to use what air power they have to bomb the Enclave into dust. With such a small base population ,even if they conscript as many peopel as they can into the military they wont be able to stand against the might of any succesor state rebuilt enough to be able to move across the atlantic.

There's never any indication given that the virus targets North America. It targets the CW and only the CW.

How can it otherwise? Its such a small scale project.

Well I would have avoided the virus and used the overwhelming technological superiority of the Enclave to accomplish the goal of cleansing the wasteland. That for sure would have avoided killing the humans of the Wasteland. Hell if they really wanted, they could have found someway to get the Super Mutants and Brotherhood to seriously maul one another first.

Then go to Vault 87 and get the Geck and use it for what it was designed to do and rebuild the DC area.

Which is all well and good, but apparently the Enclave armed forces in Fallout 3 are completely inept. They would have lost to the Brotherhood regardless in that case.

The virus is actually the only way the Enclave can apparently win, because it bypasses Liberty Prime and the Brotherhood altogether.

Well, i think that the Enclave would want to expand out of the Capital Wasteland in any directions they can. Being the vestiges of Pre-War America I think they would have a claim on the rest of North America. (And knowing the Enclave, any territory they can get their hands on)

Dropping it in the water was not a option . The water was radioactive and the people in Rivet City say the water will kill you .

And don't forget the space weapon from Broken Steel lol.

Yeah they shouldn't have made them so inept or better yet not have made them so powerful. As in actually show them as the remnant force they really were. The power armour they had shouldn't have been a more advanced version of their power armour like an Advanced PA MK III, but a weak version of it. Something they were forced to do with the resources of Raven Rock. Explain that their numbers were small, that they couldn't risk going to into open combat against the BoS and super mutants.

But instead Bethesda made the BoS crap themselves in fear, made the Enclave look indestructible with wonder weapons to spare.

Well, I think the way to get the virus into the water was a similar process to purifying it. So the enclave needs a big machine to do that, and rather than building it by themselves it seems that this James fellow has made his own purifier. So, that's saves them some time.

If Eden's goal was to kill every single person then yeah that wasn't an option. But he says that his goal was only to kill the Super Mutants and ghouls, everyone else was just an unfortunate collateral damage.

And if putting it in the water was completely out of the question. Then that means the Enclave whole plan was completely dependant on project purity. Which goes back to the question of what happened if it never got working.. Then what would have happened? Just sit in a Raven Rock forever?

The Enclave's True purpose is to save mankind . They think it is the only way to do it . The Enclave are Misunderstood and misinformed on the way to go about it . In fallout 3 The Enclave are fighting a war on multiple fronts and like in ww2 for example a weapon of last resort .

I think the enclave is pretty doomed even if they manage to conquer the capital wasteland.

Without pesky Chosen One's and Lone Wanderer's gettng in the way with their reality-bending quicksave key, there is still the fact that they have effectively cleansed the population of the Capital Wasteland, and will have very little bodies to put through the meat grinder with the other militaries of post-nuclear America.

Although stuff on the East Coast is sparse, they can run into expansionist factions further inland. Im not actually too clear on how much canon Fallout Tactics and the Midwest BoS has, but from what I can read the Barnaky ending is canon. The Midwest BoS is such a brutal military machine even before you factor in the presence of Power Armour and energy weapons.

Even if that isnt canon, there is no real way for them to conscript more people in the lands they conquer with their "Death to all mutants" policy. So even if the Midwest BoS isnt canon or what not, they are going to run into Caesar's Legion at some point, and they will probably be going up against massive amount of legionnaries. I don't think the power armour and energy weapons will do them much good when for every trooper they can put on the field there is 30 legionnaries attacking in massive formations that will probably just pin them down and wail on them until blunt force trauma does its thing and kills them.

In Fallout 3 they weren't really fighting a war, let alone one on multiple fronts. They weren't doing much of anything for 23 years and when they did show themselves they crushed anyone that stood against them. It was pretty much dumb luck that the Brotherhood got Prime working again. If it wasn't for Optimus they would have won and won soundly. There was multiple things they could have done to have stopped any chance of the BoS winning, but for some reason they did nothing.

Indeed, like instead of hitting PP first hit the pentagon and kill all the BoS there. Thus they kill off the only enemy that stands a chance of stopping them and they can take PP at there leisure. President Eden was hampered by the bad gamesas writing I think, with them basically shoehorning in the old factions in there "reboot" of the originals lock them into this generic plan I guess.

What in Fallout Tactics at the end the Brotherhood of Steel has control of a endless robot Army and all the other faction and the Possibility of Enclave recruitment by the Brotherhood of Steel . Caesar's Legion who ?

I for one welcome our new Midwestern overlords.

multiple the Brotherhood of Steel , Super mutant , Possible Brotherhood Outcasts and other factions but President Eden would not of been told the hole story from Colonel Autumn and he did not see anyone else's .

I was heading to bed when I just thought of yet another plothole in Fallout 3..

Ok so here it is.. Doctor Madison Li is credited with getting Liberty Prime working again right? Ok so when the Enclave take over Project Purity and we are forced to flee from it and Li takes us to the Citedal.. it is shown that she knows Lions and the Brotherhood very well. She is even allowed to walk up to the intercom can demand that Lyons lets them in..

We learned that the Brotherhood helped James and his people with protecting project purity. It is why Li feels that the BoS would and could protect them. When she is allowed into the Citedal, she is allowed to move around freely and even work on Liberty Prime..

So my question is.. Why didn't she get Prime working decades ago? She was able to fix it in just a couple of days so surely she could have taken a look at it long ago and fixed it then. Which means the BoS would have never have had to stay in DC for as long as they did.

The Brotherhood know that Li, James and the others are super smart people, and they clearly had access to the Citadel before and we know that these Brotherhood aren't complete isolationist tech hoarders..

So why was Dr. Li never asked to look at Prime in all that time? She never walked around the Citadel before and said "hey would you like some help with that giant robot you guys have?"

Agreed, I would love to see the MWBoS under General Barnaky. I have been saying that since I joined this forum and I will keep on doing so

I am happy that Bethesda considers at least the key parts of Fallout Tactics canon and even made clear references to it in Fallout 3 and Obsidian also making another possible reference to them in Fallout New Vegas. When Caesar talks about capturing Brotherhood in the East of his territory which know nothing of the Brotherhood's past. The only BoS that could be is the MWBoS in Colorado IMO.

Fallout Tactics is a good game .

While I agree with you (and don't think there's really an answer to that) I think a better question is how Dr. Li is able to fix it in the first place.

What does she, a scientist who mostly works with hydroponics and water purification, know about highly advanced military robotics? What did she do or know that the Brotherhood, the pre-war United States, and Robert Edwin House did not?

She knew nothing, all she did was stumble on the "activate plot device" button when she slipped in some water on the floor. when getting up looking for something to hold on to, she hit the "reprogram to kill it's own side (US government) while calling them commies" special activation code on a random keyboard that just happened to be connected to LP. She thought she broke something at first but then noticed everything was humming to life.... So an other wise embarrassing incident turning out to be the break they where looking for.

She just beat Liberty Prime over the head with a bag Bethesda Magic^TMRivet City Potatoes until it turned on.