I have a theory: the Enclave absorbed the Mid-Western Brotherhood of Steel as they headed East.

The logistics aren't particularly difficult. They would have potential access and maybe even the location of Vault 0. (For the sake of this theory, we are assuming the controller and thus the robots, were destroyed.) The Brotherhood may have manpower due to the local recruits, but the war with the machines took a heavy toll on their supplies and gear. Even at their strongest, Power Armour was very limited in number amongst their ranks, whereas it is the norm for the Enclave. The mwBoS had a few tanks that may not have survived the way; the Enclave had air superiority with vertibirds. It likely wouldn't even have been a long fight.

Or even a fight at all, if the Enclave had 'come in peace' in CW style. Power armour, soldiers, air support, supplies. The MW Brotherhood may even have accepted them with open arms.

There is no proof, of course, but there are signs that can be taken as hints.

1. We know the Enclave passed that way, and suddenly with Autumn, we have an Enclave faction that actually does want to control the wasteland, rather than kill all it's inhabitants. He genuinely, and has a faction within following him, does want to use Project Purity to win the wasteland, and hearts and minds, not wipe it out. Sound familiar? Almost as if some of the Enclave are no longer pure and indoctrinated. As if there is another tried and true method, that has worked before. The Enclave in Fallout 2 were not using this method.

2. Enclave numbers. The number of Enclave survivors, at least amongst their soldiers, has been raised as a plot hole after FO2. But, what if they had restocked on basic grunts, and officers? Perhaps the Mid-west had been their test case, and thus the attempt at winning the wasteland with propaganda. Maybe it worked before.

3. Shortly after the defeat of the Enclave in FO2, Lyons passed through the Mid-west... and found no trace/could not make contact with the Brotherhood spliter group. Perhaps they had taken such a beating they had retreated to Vault 0, and where not found. Perhaps they had integrated so well with the locals, they were no longer recognisable. Or... perhaps they had mostly gone East, retaining a base (Vault 0) and a few refuelling stations.

4. Chicago. The Mid-Western Brotherhood 'landed' and took Chicago, which was abandoned, first into heir campaign. And yet, supposedly it's got an Enclave base/outposts/refuelling station more recently. Interesting.

5. Advanced Power armour MK2. If you played Tactics, you could have been forgiven for thinking the Enclave were the Brotherhood at first glance. Even if you disregard it as coincidence, it adds to the theory. Taking the best of both armours, and coming up with what we see in FO3.

6. Controlled Deathclaws. We saw what happened when the Enclave tried to mess with Deathclaws before, in Fallout 2. It didn't end well. Yet... in Fallout 3 they have the means, via strange tech, to control them. In the mid-west, the beast masters could control the creatures of the wasteland. Perhaps through scientific study, the Enclave cracked the method? To be fair, this does not require the mwBoS, but still something that occurred to me.

7. Organisation. In FO2, despite the small fact they a re all dead, the 'government' behind the Enclave was very much civilian looking. Men in suits, secretaries, svckups. In FO3 the Enclave reminds me very much of the military command of the mwBoS, in almost every respect. Sure, this could be because it was mostly the military that survived and is the way of the military, but it shoudn't be dismissed out of hand when you consider the other points.

8. FEV and Eden. So, the FEV will wipe out all those not totally pure... almost a perfect way to get rid of tools that are no longer useful, now you have accomplished your goals. Like, say, over half your standing army that were recruited on the road, along with the rest of the barbarians?

There is more, but it's been a while since I considered it, and I don't have time to delve deeper. I just thought i'd post the theory, and see if I could spark some discussion.

Sorry but I think someone would have mentioned it if they did, which they didn't

The Enclave would have probably had less than a hundred able bodied soldiers at most, considering they are remnants of Camp Navarro. And its entirely possible they may not have even traveled East with veritibirds, considering that Raven Rock has the capacity to build its own.

The MWBOS, depending on the Ending to tactics, is still a more formidable opponent than the Enclave and would have likely mopped the floor with them just based on numerical superiority alone. The Enclave post Fallout 2 was in absolutely no shape to be picking fights with power armored wasteland groups.

Doubtful. The MWBOS is pretty territorial.

Except the Enclave soldiery are still participating regularly in the genocide of human wastelanders (see the various Enclave checkpoints littered with wastelanders). Showing just how far off tilt Autumn is compared with the rest of his so-called loyal soldiery.

Autumn is in complete disconnect with the rest of the Enclave in Fallout 3. His "save the wastelanders and treat them as equals" idealogy is not present in any way but his own mind. The Enclave, as per Eden's orders, are regularly enforcing genetic compliance via lethal means.

A.k.a. business as usual.

Or, more probably, the size of Navarro has been retconned to be larger, and the Enclave engaged in a significant breeding program.

We don't exactly know the route Lyons took. Its possible his group of 200ish Brotherhood did not exactly perform a thorough sweep of the Midwest. He may have passed by, found no trace, and missed an entire MWBOS nation being built somewhere else.

Caesar, keep in mind, is encountering MWBOS patrols in the far eastern reaches of his empire. The MWBOS is still around, even if Lyons didn't find them.

Its possible the MWBOS simply abandoned Chicago to consolidate their holdings. Perhaps they are more properly settled into the Missouri/Southern Illinois region, which they also captured during the events of tactics.

We are still unaware of the status of the so-called Enclave Chicago Outposts: what they are, and what their purpose is. An "outpost" however, isn't exactly a large military installation. It can be as small as a soldier or two manning a radio in a tiny bunker.

Bethesda ripping off the tactics design choice. Nothing more really.

The armor looks similar, but not exact. Its still quite different.

The Enclave originally engineered intelligent Deathclaws in Fallout 2. I highly doubt they require another faction to figure out how to mind-control them.

Besides, we see plenty of evidence in Fallout 3 of Enclave experiments with controlling and breeding deathclaws.

Probably because the only people who went East after Fallout 2 were Enclave soldiers stationed at Navarro and what limited scientists/civilians were there as well.

They lost the vast majority of their population on the Oil Rig, its not surprisingly they ended up this way.

Eden never once hints or even suggests this in the slightest.

As Tundra said, there is no real proof or evidence to suggest it, and something as big as the Enclave absorbing and entire Brotherhood faction would have been undoubtedly dealt with during the events of Fallout 3. Especially considering the Enclave was at war with a Brotherhood faction.

Those answers are fair enough, though yours is a bit boring tundra.

Perhaps, however, we could discuss as opposed to dismissing the idea within a few posts. If nothing else exploring it might be fun, if we allow fun here.

Personally, I don't like the idea of the MWBOS joining with the Enclave. I think the MWBOS is an interesting enough faction in its own right, and having them join with the Enclave (and then additionally having them go down at the same time as the Enclave in Fallout 3 as a result) would just be a poor choice for further development of lore.

There's also the important consideration that the MWBOS might be completely ideologically opposed to the Enclave. In two of four endings to tactics, the MWBOS accepts mutants, ghouls, and even deathclaws into their ranks with little issue.

For instance, I rather like the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxXJFGh1qng to Tactics (although there really isn't that much that's "bad" about it when compared to the Barnaky ending).

In fact, the concept of a pluralistic cultural and racial MWBOS where tolerance between these races is enforced at the point of a laser rifle would be a very interesting faction IMO. Kind of an interesting change-up between the normal discrimination seen against ghouls and mutants which seems to be something of a common trope otherwise.

Yeah I like the "Bad" Ending as well and agree that it isn't the worst possible one. I mean forced integration at gunpoint is bad? Quick someone call the Little Rock 9 and the 101st Airborne and tell them how bad they are!

I also agree it would be a very interesting game that shows the "Bad" ending MWBoS meeting with either the NCR/Legion/BoS in the West or Lyons in the East

An idea I had was that the Enclave recruited people from vaults along the way to the East Coast, kind of how they tried to grant "amnesty" to the dwellers in 101, but that would only make sense if they managed to find even one vault that still had a population that wasn't crazy or dead. I'm more of a fan of the idea that Navarro was bigger than what was seen in Fallout 2, and the Enclave just had an effective breeding program. I can't imagine the MWBOS actually joining the Enclave, they may have dealt with one another, but joining forces? I don't think so. If anything the Enclave would probably try to avoid dealing with wastelanders for awhile after the damage caused by one tribal.

The only reason I think that it could possible be construed as "bad" is the fact that its heavily implied the new Calculator orchestrates the elimination the MWBOS Elders (when they were traveling to Vault Zero for a meeting) so as to eventually become the sole leader of the combined Brotherhood/Calculator forces. However, its hardly that bad when you consider the implications of that move.

Taking out the MWBOS Elders was a pragmatic decision by the Calculator in order to wash away the last remnants of any sort of "Old ways" that the old Elders may have held. It also allowed the Calculator to streamline the racial integration process and ensure that eventually, the Brotherhood would be united under a single strong, albeit robotic, leader.

So it was ruthless, but very pragmatic. And in the long run, considering what the Calculator does for the Brotherhood and the Midwest in general, it hardly makes the whole ending out to be "bad."

There is proof that your theory did not happen.

There is not one, but two mentions of the MWBoS in Chicago and no Enclave by members of Lyons' Brotherhood.

Now I have my own theory regarding the Enclave and MWBoS.

My idea as to what happened to the Midwestern Brotherhood of Steel after the end of Fallout Tactics. Based on the

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwvnREVigyo&feature=youtu.be

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My idea of how Enclave Remnants could play a role as a part of the Midwestern Brotherhood under General Barnaky.

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I am not asking for Fallout 4 to be focused on the Midwestern Brotherhood, but we all know there will be BoS somewhere in the game and I want those BoS to be Midwestern Brotherhood under General Barnaky. Even if we don't see General Barnaky, I would like mention of him as well as the Mutant Liberation Army, as well as the events I mentioned.

Having the Enclave remnants as part of it all, is optional.

Also the Calculator army didn’t all come from Vault Zero. The Calculator sent out robots, and they came across pre-war factories as well as a nuclear power plant. Using them the Calculator expanded its army to a large size. The Midwestern Brotherhood destroyed those factories and took the power plant offline.

Not to mention Caesar clearly hints that he's engaging MWBOS forces in limited skirmishes on the Eastern borders of the legions territory. Which undoubtedly means the MWBOS is still around and has at least something of a presence close to Legion borders.