You know, I can't say for certain, not having been there and all. But I imagine it happened something like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZMwKPmsbWE.

Probably China,but anyway,other countries followed their example so world goes to WASTELAND.

Malta, what do you think is the reason for only having 5 inhabitants over here eh? They were all scientists, and Malta was a haven for nuclear missiles, every shape and form.

I would say china, only based on the fact that not all vaults were filled it seems the US was unprepared, and if the united states were to have launched first they would have informed all those who were signed up to be in vaults to get to them so they didn't lose people for the precious social experiment.

"What makes a good man go neutral? Lust for gold? Power?
Or were you just born with a heart full of neutrality?"

Can't really say. Could be other nuclear powers. UK, France, Russia, Germany, Somalia!

I hate Zapp Brannigan. :gun: :flamethrower: Anyway, it ultimately doesn't matter, judging from what I've read, the Wasteland is actually an improvement over the dystopia the pre-war world was.

I'm inclined to believe China shot first, since they were losing pretty badly at the time it all went down.



The nukes in Fort Constantine are bombs, not missiles. They're probably in storage because they're primitive and useless compared to late 21st century ICBMs and orbital weapons platforms.



...Somalia isn't even a country. As in it's a free-for-all orgy of violence and terror. Not to mention the fact that it's about as far from a nuclear power as you can get without falling off the scale.

Fallout's unwaivering patriotism has me believing that those damn commies did it first! :stare:

If you look at the Enclave now, then naturaly you would believe the U.S. launched the nukes first, But, I think that the launching may have been pretty close together and kinda killing the point of determining who launched first. The world was destroyed, china and the U.S. were both decimated along with the rest of the world, so.... does it really matter, everyone on the surface pretty much died, if they were lucky.

It was Canada. Yeah, definitely Canada. :nuke: :foodndrink: :nuke:
But seriously, I think it was the U.S., only because of the Enclaves influence, they obviously didn't care about the well being of earth in general, and figured it the best way to do what they want without worrying about interferance.

Maybe it was http://www.cracked.com/article_17165_6-reasons-north-korea-funniest-evil-dictatorship-ever.html. Lol.

Unwavering patriotism? Fallout games constantly parody patriotism. Hell, in fallout 2 & 3 the primary antagonists are the remnants of the US government. Not only that, but according to the fallout storyline, the US government took advantage of the coming apocalypse in order to experiment on it's own citizens! Fallout games are hardly flattering of the US in any respect.

Canada didn't really exist at that point as we were annexed by the USA. (Btw, that could never happen in reality. You yanks couldn't even win Vietnam, and they didn't even have tanks or an air force. You really think you could take on Canada? Ha!)

I blame the US myself. At present 20-30% of the population and growing wants to see the world come to an end. That number would likely be much higher in the future.

China is a huge possibility. They lost the Battle for Anchorage, Alaska, which alone caused their economy to be on the brink of collapse. Not to mention the US invaded China, it would have beeen just a matter of time before China was conquered. The Power Armored soldiers were just too much. But, one of the European countries could have launched, causing US and China to panic and launch theirs, then everyone else seeing nukes on the way launches theirs, and BAM Fallout is about to begin.

I was being sarcastic. :shakehead: But anyway you never know, Somalia could have been a nuclear power in the Fallout world, and we all know how that could've turned out.

'A MILLION DOLLARS OR WE DROP NUKE ON NEW YORK' :nuke: :nuke:

Dont get political. Besides, tanks dont do much anyways, and they actually did have tanks. Hence the only tank battle in the Vietnam War. And, only 10-20% of the troops in Vietnam were actually being used, the other percentage just standing there. And, Canada has one of the smallest armies, and doesnt have tanks like the US, UK and Germany, or Aircraft like us. The US at the moment has the 3rd Largest Army in the world, just behind China and India with Russia following right behind us. Do you guys even have Special Forces?


Anyways, the US wuldnt have launched because of public opinion. Clearly because the consequences are too high, and there isnt point if they were going to win anyways. China is most logical because of their impending defeat at the hands of the American War Machine...

Actually, it was stated that after the initial shock of Powered Armored troops the US army got bogged down in China, with supply lines stretched to the breaking point. Basically it is turning into a giant stalemate.

Personally, I don't think any side officially ordered the launch. The initial strike was most likely either accidental, triggered by a few hardline of either government illegally (like the enclave), or external, maybe some terrorist/resistance cell got hold of a launch code, aliens, or some AI.

The entire lore of fallout is to make it as ambiguous as possible as who triggered the initial strike, as both side would have good reason to launch first.

Yeah but the supply lines being overstretched would only be a temporary thing. Either the US would restablish good supply lines or the US forces would get pushed back. Either way, China would probably face another invasion force somewhere closer to Beijing.

You mean Sweden right? Americans don?t know the difference

China, during (or at the end?) of the resource wars became very aggressive towards the USA concerning distribution of it's oil supplies. Noted in the Fallout bible for 2066. With this in mind it would make sense that America fired their missiles first, to get hold of what little fossil fuel was left in the world. This would also make the Vault system make sense; If they'd wanted to strike China with nukes they'd have to be prepared for them to do the same thus vaults were built to protect people (or perhaps not considering most vaults were social experiments...).

Personally though I'm sticking to what Richardson says, and I'm putting it down to the reds being pissed by the Anchorage defeat. It's noted in Fallout 2 therefore I consider that canon until some solid form of evidence is produced in later games or other Fallout-related media. However I'm not convinced by the Skynet theory as that seems more like a blatant joke in reference to Terminator. And aliens would just make no sense and completely destroy the whole idea behind 'War never changes'. Big no to aliens, it's ridiculous and horribly out of place in the Fallout timeline.

That's what I gather too

I'm just putting this out there, its already been said but I'll say it again. Neither side fired first. I bet it was those damn ruskie's!! Probably got tired of the war, and it was just another stand still so they decided to fire which caused everyone else to fire. I dunno, it's hard to determine really. Neither side was in good shape, so for all we know it could have been both sides and they fired at the same time?

Like hell we don't! I take giant offense!

We know very damn well that the Swiss make those knives, banking, watches, and are just too damn neutral...

The Sweeds are dumb, and they're blond with blue eyes

They also have those white winged hats and wooden clogs! :icecream:

Uh... Canada has tanks. And an air force. And yes, it has special forces. There is CSOR and JTF2.

I have no idea where you got your information from, because it is wrong, to the point that I assume you either had no clue or did not do the research.

those damn commies launched first, of course