My question is what caused this "Brotherhood/NCR War?" They were friends. Brotherood has a bunker in Shady Sands. Lore says they have a state in NCR. There is not much mention of war back west. Like you said the chapters seem independent of Lost Hills. Could the war just be something that only happened in the Mojave?

No, because the BOS destroyed NCR's gold reserves, forcing them to use paper money. I doubt these reserves were in the Mojave. Likewise, the Mojave Chapter only did battle with NCR at Helios One. There's no indication they did war with NCR anywhere else.

(Helios One for the Brotherhood was a disastrous battle where the Mojave chapter inflicted heavy casualties but lost in the end - For NCR it was Tuesday)

Likewise, I doubt Kimball was referring to the Battle of Helios One as the "Brotherhood War." In my game, Colonel Moore said, "Do you have any idea how long we've been fighting them?" When you bring them the question of a truce with the BOS. For me, that implies there's a lengthier war than the conflict at Helios One - which was again the only real action the Mojave Chapter saw against NCR.

I don't trust the Vault wiki completely but it mentions Moore said she served "Four tours against the brotherhood." Given the length of military terms, it's entirely possible that the war lasted upwards of a couple of decades.

If I had to guess what happened, it's entirely possible that the Brotherhood and NCR's relations deteriorated over the increasing access to weapons technology that NCR undoubtedly had in the aftermath of the Enclave's destruction. If NCR intended to make use of energy weapons and power armor, the Brotherhood might have decided to do a pre-emptive strike (or vice versa). With President Tandi's death VERY likely after the events of the Enclave's destruction, it's possible that NCR reacted rashly or the Brotherhood thought they'd get a quick victory.

Hell, given NCR's history of expansionism, it's believable they might have INSISTED on the Brotherhood/Lost Hills becoming a part of NCR's nation-state as opposed to being a nation INSIDE NCR.

Wars have been started over a lot less, after all.

The evidence all points to the war being wide spread. Just wish we got a little more info about this war. I know the forcus of New Vegas was NCR vs Legion. So giving us info about a war back west against the BoS would take away from the conflicts in the Mojave. Maybe some info will come in the up coming DLC but I doubt it.

I just don't see NCR destroying the Brotherhood without the devs giving some mention of it. Then again they are the same devs that only put a couple of brothehood in Fallout 2 :ermm: Anyways I believe they are still alive just on the losing side of NCR or that any conflict ended because Kimball does talk about the war in past tense.

Still I see hope in the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtXhuaTcohY. :fallout:

It's just my supposition but I'm inclined to think that NCR probably has Lost Hills surrounded and under siege or Lost Hills has been evacuated with the majority of the Brotherhood now in bunkers. The BOS is obviously still in existence since Father Elijah only came around six years ago or so and he wasn't FLEEING FOR HIS LIFE. If all of the BOS are in lockdown then NCR probably has them safely pacified but without actually having WON the war.

One thing I found out is, according to Chief Hanlon, all of the NCR Power armor we see isn't recovered Pre-War tech. It's actually Brotherhood of Steel Armor. I just talked to him in-game and basically all of NCR's Heavy Troopers are wearing the armor of dead Paladins with the Joint-Servos removed.

Wow, that's cold.

It makes the Brotherhood being so brassed off about NCR tech make more sense.

A lot of NCR's foibles being due to the Brotherhood doing massive infrastructure damage in the war and inflicting huge casualties (i.e. so only veterans and raw recruits remain) would explain why the government seems like such a collection of idjits. I.e they're desperate to assert their military superiority after an extended slugging match.