Boston is probably the most renowned City in the Pre-War NE Commonwealth.
Probably a lot of fishermen from NS and the NE seaboard fishing the same waters, eh?
Yarmouth is roughly the same distance from Boston as the Pitt is from DC.

I would kill for some info on how everyting went down in Canada.
I am not sure there would be vaults there- if there was time for it really. But how disrupted was Canadian life during the the Sino-American War? Did any Canadians come down to the US? Did they rally to fight the Chinese that wanted to pass through BC? were they drafted if they didn't?

I find myself wondering if life as it is now in NS wouldn't be too different from post war, the way you paint it.

Its outright stated in a note in Fallout 3 that Canada had vaults.

That all depends. If the fish are still biting.

NS is a big naval base for Canada, so it probably would have been sent a nuke if for no other reason just to make the list complete. If you were a Chinese administrator tasked with nuking Canada and didn't include Halifax, you'd probably get on someone's crap-list. Even if you pointed out there wasn't much there of threatening military hardware: a target's a target.

But would it have been bombed out of existance? Probably not. It wouldn't be the first time the place was blasted with that sort of weaponry (Halifax Explosion -- biggest non-nuclear explosive disaster before Hiroshima and similar in effect, if smaller). Would it have vaults? Not from Vault-Tec, I'd think. Maybe something, who knows.

To give you an idea, actually, of how historically the two regions have been tied... or at least in the NS mindframe, modern Boston might not think about it much... NS still sends a Christmas Tree to Boston each year, to this day, to commemorate its aid during the Halifax Explosion. Specifically Boston: Not Ottawa, not Toronto, not Quebec (or New York) but Boston. Because Boston sent the most help for what it had. And the official, response to Halifax thanking them was something like 'What else could we have done?'. Which is still remembered.

It's not like we think about them much, but it gives you an idea of how the Commonwaelth might not be so opposed there.

I dunno. We are talking annexation in 2076, and the Great war the next year.
Hear me out. The thing that the letter can't take into account is when the great war is going to happen. They are selling a spot in a vault, sometime in the future.

Since the letter was in a mailbox (5% of them had one) that means it was sent a couple of days before the great war- with no foresight into how long it would be until the great war happened.
The letter provides a list of the possible vaults that they can apply to that aren't full. If the vaults had been completed prior to annexation- and given there was a war actually happening to stoke people's fear, you would think that they would have a lot of occupants on the list already and therefore, be full.

So with that in mind, would they sell a spot in a vault that was being built?
The real life "vault" company Vivos actually did this- sold spots before their facilities were completed.
I can say this, in business things that don't physically exist yet are sold all the time.
For instance, how many F4 pre-orders do you think have sold?

All good points,

And certainly coastal trade and fishing makes a lot of sense.

So major human settlements up and down the coast line away from bomb targets seems very feasible after 200 years.

You could even do a lot of fishing from the shoreline.

The fishing should be great considering there has been no major commercial fishing in two hundred year.

The fish should not even be glowing by now and the Doom Whales and Neomegalodons are too busy with each other (Not!).

I just don't see the New England area that organized unless the Institute has a Coast Guard of some kind keeping the pirates and bigger nuisances down,

I'm thinking between pirates, raiders, and other creatures, all the the settlements on the coast are well fortified and pretty isolated.

Only the bigger ships could safely travel and they would need deep water ports to dock and their size would mean there would be a handful of ports worth visiting.

They would still do a fair amount of trade with fishing vessels from local settlements coming out to meet them but they would also very worry about pirates in swarms of small boats.

Now any place you couldn't reach safely by water would be pretty backwoods unless there was a really good reason to be there.

If for no other reason then transporting stuff by brahmin caravan would be a lot slower, more expensive, and more risky.

I know Fallout 4 has pirates and smugglers so it is going to be interesting to see how Bethesda handles it.

According to Tobar, he used to take his small ferry boat up and down the coast, so pirates aren't much of a problem. Mutant ocean critters are however.

Also, that wasn't a pirate in the concept art, its was a ghoul in old British army attire.

Tobar was sailing up and down the Potomac and had no competition.

His main cargo is fruit.

Nothing to attract the attention of a group of pirates, at least nothing compared to the the trade going in to and out of the Institute.

Finally Point Lookout also had smugglers and they seemed more like pirates.

As to pirates in F4, the Sole Survivor is on some boats and ships and is killing people in the presentation so I figured they were pirates.

Could have just been raider living on the wrecks of ships.

The Sole Survivor is also seen wearing a bright yellow fisherman rain gear which would be very useful to a pirate or smugglers.

No, Tobar is sailing up and down the Potomac delivering fruits NOW. He outright says that he used to go all up and down the entire COAST, specifically mentioning The Commonwealth and the Broken Banks.

The Lone Wanderer: "Nice boat. You must have seen a lot of places with it."
Tobar: "You should have seen her back in her heyday! Why, we traveled up and down the coast, from the Commonwealth to the Broken Banks. Good times, but these days she's not fit to take out to the coast. Too many spouts ready to drown her, and too many critters looking for lunch. But the Point Lookout run is good enough for now. We've got a sweet deal ferrying cargo and the occasional traveler."

Well, a ghoul in British Army attire probably would be based out of... lol.

Assuming Bethesda isn't going to take us TOO far into the American Revolution, if Boston and the rest of New England were to get itself organized and stem any natural infighting, it would be in a good position to become a regional power what with so much top-notch Universities in the area.

This is a my own thinking, but they'd probably have to contend with Quebec and New York, but mostly Quebec since they'd probably be unified and New York might be pretty divided. And the Maritime provinces north of the border would be a big draw for resources since Quebec would probably want them for itself and be all too aware of what's there to take (and there are pockets of French in both NB and NS -- heck, much of north NB IS French. Plus Quebec could make a claim as them being part of Canada, New France, or whatever). As I stated the Maritimes couldn't stand on its own and with the rest of English Canada so distant they would either end up taking orders from the streets of Boston or Montreal. Most would choose Boston, though.

Halifax would probably be a jewel in the crown there. Backwater naval base with a bigger city/town than anywhere else east of Quebec and north of Boston? With an easily defended harbor, warship-making facilities north of N. Carolina and a few of its own mid-level universities the Institute could use for spare space? I'm thinking the Commonwealth could make use of that, even if some of it might be a little bit nuked (or not if it flies under the radar during the war).

It actually gets quite interesting to consider what 'nations' are likely to come out of the ashes and who would end up fighting with who and who takes what.

Good point but he must have a death wish taking a flat bottomed 200 year old river boat up and down the coast.

Or he could have been lying through his brain stealing teeth.

OK between Tobar and the smugglers we have trade between the Commonwealth and the Broken Banks.

The ghoul Quinn in the Underworld also mentions those places

It seems that, either by land or by sea, The Commonwealth is the most northern place of any real importance, and the Crater Banks is the southern place of any real importance.... at least in regards to the east coast. Not to suggest there aren't small Point Lookout type places north or south of those areas, but The Commonwealth and the Broken/Crater Banks seem to be the most northern and southern stops of the east coast trade routes.

The Pitt appears to be as far west as people go, as, even in the Pitt DLC itself, they fail to mention nearby cities of importance, such as Cleveland Ohio, and Columbus Ohio, which are anywhere from 60 to 100 miles closer to The Pitt then the C.W. is, and instead mention places like the C.W., Ronto, and The Commonwealth. The Commonwealth being over 500 miles from The Pitt.

As a fellow Nova Scotian, I can see where the connection to Boston/MA is coming from, the two places are in very good terms, Boston being one of the main sources of aid after the Halifax explosion. (We actually send them a big ass x mas tree every year) and various other connections

While I could see Nova Scotia being a large trade port for a lot of the Atlantic coast, and a good connection to Boston. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some nods or parts of lore that factor in this relationship. I Don't see NS just up and joining them. Pre great war Canada took the annexation pretty hard, and there would likely be a lot bigger things on their minds than joining with one particular commonwealth.

Like mentioned earlier, This area was just 1 of many commonwealths, and it happened to get that as a nickname.

After the great war the Commonwealth is just as chaotic and uncivilzed as DC was. Wouldn't be anyone to give NS orders.

My interpretation is that NS and the Maritimes would at the very least get hit with crippling amounts of radiation, which would be more than enough to send it into anarchy after the nuclear exchange, and individual cities, factions, and militias would rise out of that. Sure the provinces would keep their names (Canada is said in the lore to have retained it's provincial municipalities after annexation due to its size and low population density) but it would largely just be who had the bigger stick.

I could see at least some parts of NS forming trade routes, fishing, etc over the Atlantic with a lot of other places. with NS being so far out of the way its unlikely they suffered any direct hits, so ships, and architecture would be in much better shape than places farther south.

As someone who's lived in Nova Scotia all my life, it's awesome to see Fallout 4 being set in Boston, the kinds of terrain you see are somewhat similar. Probably as close to NS a fallout setting will ever Be. I hope they have some rural, back-woodsy areas in the Fallout 4 map, as I'd love to build a house similar to my own. (Live out in the middle of nowheres. Halifax is way too busy for my tastes )

That would be a shameful waste of New York. New York should get its own full game.

Psh...

Fallout: Newfoundland and Labrador is waayy more deserving of a standalone game than NYC.

first npc you meet tries to screech you in

Man....75% of video games that take place in a city are already in new york.....new york svcks. send us to RONTO

also, off the top of my head, I believe that I read somewhere that ny city pretty much got hit harder than any other part of the states and is utterly annihilated. I can't confirm that though

B'ys. B'ys Never change.

Golden

Better be some mutated cod around the area or something. Mirecod......Codlurks.......

Hahahaha Yes. Codlurks sound horrifying

IS the commonwealth as bad as DC though? I guess we'll find out. I was thinking they weren't: DC seems pretty worse off than California and new Vegas. I was thinking this would be if and when Boston presumably gets New England under its control.

As you said it would depend on how the annexation went, but we don't know much about it except that some of Canada fought back and there was blood shed. But was that in Quebec? Ontario? BC or the prairies? We don't know. The maritimes are just as unlikely to want the U.S. as the rest of Canada.

But... If there wasn't much fighting in the maritimes, and 200 or more years later the commonwealth was a big force in the region and no longer considering itself the United states, and either Ronto or Quebec had got THIER act together.... It's a lot of maybes, but the maritimes would probably have to choose or be annexed by someone because it wouldn't be enough on its own. And I think it would probably choose the commonwealth over the more different culture that would probably still exist to the west between itself and Ronto.

This is maybe looking into the post game of fallout 4, but I think it's worth thinking about. Clearly the United states is never going to reform in post apocalyptia, and Canada wouldn't either. You'd get a bunch of new countries with new borders.

Imagine when you see a giant mutated moose come charging at ya bud haha

http://orig15.deviantart.net/b7eb/f/2005/009/9/5/moose.jpg

now that would be some scary [censored]

Well DC would have been pummeled. U.S. capitol. I Probably a priority target, hence why it was supposed to be a blasted and depressing place. Mr. House had a defense system that shot down 76/77 missiles headed to Vegas. (please, correct me if I am wrong) The one that made it through I believe was a dud, and you can find it in the Mojave too. I'm pretty sure it said Boston got lucky cause most of the bombs were directed to NY instead. I think t was the wiki....but I cant be sure

According to Zimmer,

"The Commonwealth itself is nothing but a war-ravaged quagmire of violence and despair. Inside the sealed environment of the Institute, however... But... the Institute's affairs are none of your concern. Your undeveloped mind couldn't even begin to comprehend what we've accomplished."

and Horace Pinkerton in Rivet city describes it as

"Most of it's a blasted nothing, just like here. But there's talk. Rumors, mostly. About a place called the Institute. That's where Zimmer and that android came from. God knows what else they got goin' on in there, but it puts our tech to shame, that's for damn sure."

Thanks, was just going to find those quotes

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Boston

Pretty vague, but it mentions that the Greater Boston Area was hit with only one bomb. It is unclear if the city of Boston itself was even hit by a nuke