I completed my first playthrough (on very hard + hardcoe mode) and somehow the final battle seemed to play out a bit differently than I expected.

I started out siding with Caesar most of the way and then switched to the Yes Man quest at the very end, killing Caesar, Lucius, Vulpes at the Fort and then Lanius at the Legate's Camp. Perhaps because I completed most of the Legion quests, for some reason when I first approached Lanius, he was very friendly and asked me to help him kill General Oliver. After realizing there was no way to exit the camp and kill General Oliver, I went back to Lanius and then there was another dialogue that ended with him becoming hostile. After I killed Lanius, the gate opened and I was then able to kill General Oliver and the NCR Rangers.

Other than flying the bomber overhead and dropping 3 or 4 bombs, the Boomers seemed to have absolutely no effect on the Hoover Dam battle. The Great Khans only effect was to send 4 or 5 Khans to the Dam. At the time of the ending, I was Idolized by the Boomers. I completed all the Boomers quests somewhat early and told Yes Man the Boomers would be helping me.

However, later when I was in Caesar's tent it seemed the only way to move the Legion quests forward to unlock Arizona Killer was by telling Caesar that the Boomers would be helping me, which he interpreted to mean that the boomers would be helping the Legion. The update to my quest log seemed to indicate they would suddenly be helping Caesar instead of me. Because so few bombs dropped, I really couldn't tell if they were helping me or Caesar.

Also, I was idolized by the Great Khans at the time of the ending and Papa Khan had told me that I would be his heir. However in the final battle they attacked me. There were so few of them, it really didn't matter, but I expected that they would be helping me.

The Great Khans fight with the Legion unless you wipe them out or get them to side with the NCR - and if you're working with the Legion, there's no way to get them to side with the NCR. same goes with House, and Yes-Man unless you doublecross the NCR at the last minute like you did with the Legion.

I went Yes Man and got the BoS and Enclave to idolize me. They helped me fighting at hoover dam, which was pretty awesome (They were wearing full Power Armor and were carrying huge guns ). I also sided with the boomers and yeah, all they do is throw some bombs. I don't even now if those bombs kill anything. Idk if you can get the Khans to side with you, when you're not going with the NCR or Legion. I made them leave the Mojave in their quest.

Well you can. You just have to not doing too much, if none at all, of the Wild Card quests before 'Don't Trend on the Bear' "completes", which basically means all NCR-related main quests will fail aside from 'You'll Know when it Happens'. Once you get 'For the Republic, Part 2', and go through all of that with the Khans, you should be able to get them to side with the NCR, since you'll be helping the NCR at Hoover Dam, and then proceed to do the Wild Card missions since the Wild Card missions are always a last resort to finishing the game while NCR's are not.

So its kinda like manipulating, but not really. :whistling:

The boomers are helping YOU! whichever side you take in the end is the side they take. Unlike the other factions your not convincing them to take sides in the NCR/Legion fight. Your asking them to take your side. This is why the dialog is always "the boomers helping me"

nevermind

The side factions show up to help you out, but their impact on the battle is minimal. It's mostly for the joy of added chaos.

If I may ask a side question: How'd you attack Caesar at the Fort in the Yes Man ending? Is this only an option if you destroyed House's securitrons?

I activated the securitrons very early in the game and lied to Caesar and told him they were destroyed.

Much later, I operated on Caesar, killed him and then since I previously did so many things to help the Legion, they "forgave" me and gave me the next assignment, to assassinate president Kimball. After killing president kimball, and wiping out all the NCR inside the Dam, I went back to the Fort, got another quest assignment from Lucius and then killed everyone in the tent using C-4 pickpocketed into their inventory, Caesar's displacer glove and a few plasma grenades. outside the tent I killed a number of Legion soldiers, but the only way to escape was to put on a Legion disguise and talk to the guy at the gate who sends you back to Cottonwood Cove.

I waited to visit Yes Man at the Lucky 38 until after all this was completed and after killing all the Legion at Cottonwood Cove as well as all the NCR at Camp Mcarran, Mojave Outpost, every Ranger Station, every NCR location including the NCR offices on the Strip. The total time of my first playthrough was 165 hours!

So there's no way to have the Great Khans help you fight against Legion and NCR?

I mean, Papa Khan told me I was the new leader of the Khans LOL.