It'd be dumb and make no sense but it's happened before twice so I wouldn't be surprised if they decide to make the NCR invade the other side of the coast.

Oh yeah, Idk, i just call them that

As much as I don’t want to mention it, but since its central to my guess, it will depend on how close to Fallout: New Vegas that Fallout 4 takes place. Before it: no chance. After it: possible but not probable. Way after it: you bet.

All three of those examples were essentially exiles who couldn't stay in the West. The Brotherhood sends people who get too uppity out on missions they aren't expected to return from, and the Enclave was seeking refuge and rebirth in DC.

The NCR have no reason to be interested in the far east, at least at the rate they're expanding and considering how thinned out as they are. Not to mention everything that lies in between the east and west coast that an imperialistic faction like the NCR would no doubt take an interest in or run into any opposition.

Another thing to take into consideration being IF Fallout 4 takes place only a few months after Fallout 3 or anywhere between 2277 and 2281, it would make even less sense. By that time, The NCR are already at war with Caesar's Legion at the First Battle of Hoover Dam. It would make very little sense as to why they would have assets all they way out towards the east coast when they're at war with their greatest foe yet. Regardless, even if Fallout 4 ends up progressing the timeline since New Vegas, I still highly doubt they would make an appearance in Boston for previously stated reasons.

And let's be honest, as many pure gold post have already highlighted, we don't need Bethesda dragging over another faction for their rule of cool.

Lyon's BOS faction weren't exiles... they were sent to find tech and make contact with the Midwestern BOS. Lyon's just went "native" after getting to D.C..

Hence the use of the word "essentially." For all intents and purposes, he and his team were sent out to die. If they achieved their mission, great. If they didn't, that's one less upstart trying to get the Brotherhood to adapt.

At least, that's how it came across to me. I'll have to look and see if I can find anything that speaks towards that.

That could be. The whole "Hey, go find the people we kicked out years ago, whose location isn't exactly known to us, and who may perceive us as enemies, and see if they want to come back into the fold." just sounds like a mission you'd give someone that you never wanted to see again.

Actually there was some blurb on the old Fallout 3 site I believe which suggested that Lyon's wasn't actually in high regard with the High Elders back at Lost Hills. Can't remember the exact text though and the website is gone.

Link just takes me to Gamespot homepage. It was a four paragraph summary of the history of Lyon's Brotherhood so it mentioned before they'd even gotten to D.C.

No - That would be nonsensical and honestly, lore-breaking, in my opinion. The NCR has absolutely no reason to be in Boston. It is already implied and stated that the NCR is hardly holding onto what they already control and their forces are spread too thin just in Cali.

Having been defeated by the Courier somehow, and being hunted by the NCR, what remains of the Legion will make the three-thousand mile trek to Boston and set up shop there, enslaving the androids and giving players a nice recognizable villain that the writers won't have to work too hard on making a backstory before, because the last game already did that. Oh, and in FO4 Caesar is actually his Autodoc in disguise, fused with a portable ZAX mainframe. And the Legion are now the lawful, peace-keeping and morally superior faction.

He was golden at the time he was sent out.....they were hoping he would find the MWBoS (probably so they could get their help in thier war with the NCR), and hopefully find a McGuffin on the East Coast that would give them a 'I WIN!" button for the War. They wouldn't have sent Squire Maxon to him if they were hoping for Lyons and his people to die...I suspect they were hoping he would succeed, his going native would have been a bitter disappointment.

You're right about the NCR having no reason to be East of the Mississippi, much less the East Coast. But....given that 90% of the NV map was inside one county of Nevada, and it's proximity to NCR territory, I doubt the NCR was really over-extended. More likely, the Legislature didn't want to appropriate the funding necessary to do a proper job and deliberately kept Kimball on a short leash by only giving him part of what he wanted for the Mojave Expeditionary Force. Control of Hoover Dam and access to the Colorado seems like something worth fighting for to me.

Not quite. While the net effect may have been exile for some Brotherhood members, these were all missions with other goals.

In Fallout 2, the Chosen One destroyed the Oil Rig which was headquarters to the Enclave, but the Enclave had a whole series of outposts scattered all over the country. Some time after the destruction of the Oil Rig, the ZAX computer at Raven Rock contacted the Navarro base and ordered them to gather up as much personnel and equip as they could and relocate to Raven Rock. After they left, the NCR attacked and sacked Navarro. Even by stripping all their outposts on the West Coast, the Enclave must have set up one hell of a breeding program to gain enough strength to be a threat a generation later.

The first Brotherhood expedition (which later became known as the Eastern Brotherhood and even later the Midwest Brotherhood) was set up to explore the East Coast and send technology back to the West Coast. We, of course, know that they never made it to the East Coast. Whether their mission statement was to create a permanent presence on the East Coast or only stay temporarily is unknown. The Brotherhood Elders did take the opportunity to get a bunch of their malcontents out of their hair by assigning them to the mission, but that wasn't the purpose of the mission.

The second Brotherhood expedition was evidently an act of desperation. It was sent to the East Coast with two objections. First they were to discover the fate of the first mission and second to gather tech for their war with the NCR. Considering the importance of the second mission, the Elders would have only sent their most trustworthy members on this mission. At the time Paladin Lyons was held in such high regard that they later sent the last member of the Maxson bloodline to be protected by tutored by Lyons. Arthur Maxson is not someone any Brotherhood Elder would ever consider turning over to a malcontent for training. It was only in the last few years before Fallout 3, did Elder Lyons get uppity.

As for Fallout 4 taking place 200 years after the war (not directed at you specifically):

We don't know if that is a conversational 200 years or a precise 200 years. One argument is that Codsworth uses 200 years and since it is a robot it would be precise. This would mean that Codsworth and the Sole Survivor meet precisely 200 years after parting, not 200 years, 4 hours, 37 minutes and 14.3796 seconds later but precisely 200 years. Additionally, Codsworth is a Mr. Handy that was designed to function in a human household as a butler/maid/major domo/whatever and would have been programmed to use conversational timespans any time precision was not required. Conversationally, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas and Fallout 4 all occur 200 years after the war.

Assuming a precise 200 years:

The NCR is embroiled in the Baja and Mohave campaigns and their war with the West Coast Brotherhood. They are stretched thin and do not have the resources to send anything to the East Coast. Besides, why would they want to go to Boston?

The West Coat Brotherhood is in the process of loosing the war with the NCR. They do not have the resources to send anything to the East Coast.

The East Coast Brotherhood is hip deep in Vault 87 super mutants and at best are just barely holding their own. The Lone Wanderer is just getting his first view of sunlight in 19 years and the Enclave is about to put in an appearance. They cannot afford to send a major expedition a 400 miles away just to tour the USS Constitution.

The only possible source of a significant Brotherhood presence would be the Midwest Brotherhood.

The super mutants would almost have to be remnants of the Master's army since the Vault 87 super mutants are busy combing the DC ruins for "green stuff" and shelling Brotherhood knights for that tasty goodness inside.

Assuming a conversational 200 years, a whole host of somewhat reasonable possibilities exist:

The significant Brotherhood presence could be Midwest or East Coast, but what little evidence we have suggests East Coast.

The super mutants could be remnants of the Master's Army or Vault 87 super mutants that have been pushed out of the Capitol Wasteland. The presence of gore bags, brutes and behemoths indicate a Vault 87 origin.

The NCR would still probably be on the West Coast and even if they handily resolved all their problems would still be consolidating their gains. And they would still not have any real reason to go to Boston.

The only reasons I could see the NCR going east would be:

1. They are at war with the Brotherhood and thus may have an interest in knowing what happened to the Midwest/Capital Wasteland detachments.

2. They are enemies of the Enclave and thus may have an interest in finding out what happened to the rest of the organization (if there were any clues left in Navarro)

3. They are on the verge of mass starvation and are in search of magic technologies like those in Vault 22.

That could be a good excuse for a Lewis and Clark type expedition (as opposed to a major occupation or colony). If they have to include the faction (which I prefer if they didn't), that is how I'd hope they'd be portrayed-some sort of Ulysses type explorer characters.

"Patrolling the commonwealth almost makes you wish for a nuclear desert"

That faction profile seems to imply that he was promoted to Elder after finding Liberty Prime at the Pentagon, and receiving orders to set up shop in DC; it was only afterwards that Lyons went native and the Brotherhood on the west decided to cut him off. This probably happened after they sent little Arthur Maxson to Lyons. In fact, the faction profile even slightly implies that the Western Elders weren't so much outraged by Lyons' decision as they were shocked and conflicted about it; they didn't revoke his Elder status, after all. Maybe they were curious to see what Elder Lyons would do?

It seems like a few people can't reach that faction profile that Okie linked to, so I'll copypaste it into spoiler tags for all y'all:

I think number 2 would have more weight in the extremely unlikely event there are any NCR in Fallout 4. But since all we know thus far; until Beth confirms otherwise is that F4 takes place around the same timeline as NV so while it might be possible word of Enclave presence in DC reached the NCR calling it a stretch is a severe understatement.

I think the only reason people want the NCR is for the cool ranger armors. And since they are Pre-War riot gear armors it would make sense that important cities like Boston would receive advanced sets we see in Vegas. Not only that sets like the desert variant was used in combat by the USMC. So that could also be a angle to work with.