Video Game / Old World Blues

War, war never changes.

Old World Blues is a popular Hearts of Iron IV Game Mod set in the Fallout universe, or rather, an alternate universe version of it. The player can play as any of the West Coast factions in addition to a plethora of original ones. Not only that, every major faction has options that the player can take to radically alter their directions, like turning Caesar's Legion into an actual nation-state or turning the NCR into an oligarchic dictatorship in all but name. Many of the game systems have been overhauled to better reflect the post-apocalypse nature of the setting.

The setting itself and the scale of the conflict also result in a very different map (not just because it only covers North and Central America instead of the whole world). While Vanilla HoI4 worldmap consists in several landmasses, no rivers, large seas, many islands, insular nations, and countries of various sizes distributed on all those lands, Old World Blues consists in a single landmass occupied by a hundreds of tiny countries all sharing borders with several others (there's literally two island nations, both minor), while rivers are treated as seas, allowing landings and naval battles in many places beside the oceans. Since the diplomatic AI is more aggressive, the new map layout forces the player to be more cautious.

The current version features the entirety of the West Coast of North America, along with about half of Canada and the American West, Texas, and Mexico. The developers have plans to make the entire map playable, with areas not covered by any game being given original lore and factions.

The current version offers five starting scenarios: West Coast, Mexico, Texas, Utah, and the North, though in practice it's exactly the same campaign (it only affects the suggested majors at the country selection screen).

See also Enclave Reborn, a submod for Old World Blues that builds on the idea of a playable Enclave faction, and Balefire Blues, a submod and crossover with another famous HOI4 mod, Equestria at War.

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This Game Mod provides examples of:

• Adaptation Amalgamation: The mod includes content based on all released Fallout games, cancelled Fallout games and adaptations (J.E. Sawyer's Fallout Role-Playing Game, Fallout Extreme, Fallout: Van Buren), and the Wasteland series. The Texas content incorporates elements from the more infamous spin-offs Fallout Tactics and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, albeit retooled to fit with canon.
• Adaptational Badass: City-states like New Reno and New Vegas hold more far more territories than they do in the source material, effectively turning them into full-fledged nation-states, since otherwise they wouldn't even be visible on the map.
• Adaptation Expansion: The mod fleshes out the Fallout lore to include more factions and characters as well as new events that were not present in the series.
• Adaptational Heroism: The detonation of the Divide is not featured in the game, so the Courier is not guilty of unknowingly blowing it up here. Likewise for Ulysses, who has no reason to become a crazed lunatic hellbent on nuking the NCR and the Legion.
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • In earlier versions, robots still cost a considerable amount of manpower to use and maintain. This hit Mr. House pretty hard since his faction relied on robots and didn't have a lot of people. This was modified in later versions so that robots use a lot less manpower to make them more viable.
  • Courier Six is a bona fide One-Man Army in the source material who can take out entire outposts by themselves. The Courier in this mod is merely a good spy who can't directly influence battles in any way. Worse still, the Courier doesn't even get to be the person who reactivates the Securitron vault, with that role being relegated to either Benny/the King or a mercenary suicide squad.
  • Due to being based on a canceled game that clashes with later canon, the Washington Brotherhood is reimagined as a single rogue chapter rather than an imperialistic nation stretching as far as Alaska. Ditto for their rival the Cause, which can expand all the way to Alaska and Asia in their war against the Brotherhood.
• After the End: As this is set in the Fallout universe, it explicitly takes place after a devastating nuclear war shattered the old global powers and turned much of the world into irradiated wasteland.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Tlaloc, the AI in charge of governing and protecting a large part of Mexico, is a subversion. Its grip is undeniable, but at the same time, it's been remarkably benevolent, generally letting the various states and factions within the old borders do as they wished so long as there was some semblance of peace. By the starting date, however, it's slowly fracturing and dying, with subroutines forming into different AI personalities based on famous figures in Mexican history. These "children" include Santa Anna (who has already broken off at the start of the game) and can end up fighting each other for control over Mexico.
• Alternate Universe: The mod takes several liberties with Fallout's canon. Some of the differences include the Courier playing no role in the Utah conflict ^note unless a specific mod is installed, the Mojave Rangers being the same as the Desert Rangers from the Wasteland series^note the Desert Rangers were a nod to Wasteland in Fallout canon to start with, but the mod fills in the scant information on them by lifting characters and locations wholesale from Wasteland and Mr. House being able to save a few more locations outside of Vegas.
• Apocalypse Not: Even more so than the source material, which already has post-war nations with the population in the hundreds of thousands. Developed nations in the mod are so advanced they are capable of mass-producing pre-war technology like armored vehicles, airplanes, and even power armors.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: The income system feature requires to have a balanced budget, and the troops' wages are substracted from the income. Since the wages are proportional to the number of divisions on the field, it results in a soft cap to the size of your army. It also limits the military strength of many minors, since majors will start with more territories and stronger economics. However, some minor countries start on top of major trade nodes, which dramatically boost their cap income and let them field large armies and expansive intelligence networks.
• Archnemesis Dad: Can happen if a Bishop-controlled New Reno and Arroyo go to war. Mr. Bishop and the Chosen One, the leaders of the two factions respectively, are canonically implied to be son and father. Depending on who is the aggressor, this can also be an instance of Antagonistic Offspring.
• Army of Thieves and Whores:
  • What raider nations basically are, going by the source material.
  • Recruitment policies can be modified, from "no recruitment of criminals, period!" to "every single criminal and raider who applies is immediately accepted in our ranks", and all sorts of in-between. It has consequences on available's manpower pool, the standards of your army, and an army with a high proportion of raiders also decreases the nation's stability.
  • The Washington Brotherhood stands out for being an Advanced nation with such a military from the get-go, likely due to The Immortal's thirst for war requiring a whole lot more warm bodies than normal. Going by unit names and their "raider conscripts" policy, much of their armed forces are erstwhile savages.
• Artificial Stupidity:
  • A late part of Troll Warrens' tree consists in choosing whereas they'll first strike north (against Washington Brotherhood) or south (against Arroyo and/or Klamath); attacking the other part of the map is available later. AI chooses the strategy at random, which means, depending how the region's geopolitics evolved, the faction may draw the attention of NCR first (Klamath and Arroyo sometimes join it) and get invaded and defeated, while Washington Brotherhood's own faction would be weaker and conquering them first would make Troll Warrens' stronger before waging war against NCR and its allies.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: The Free Fighters are a surprisingly positive and civilized example, as their government behaves like a wrestling federation. Member tribes are represented on the council by their mightiest Luchador, policy debates are settled by matches in the ring, and whoever is the current league champion is considered president. Their philosophy also means that the strength of their leaders must be put to use protecting the weak and freeing the downtrodden, or else they are deemed unworthy of their authority.
• Attack Animal: Dogs can be added as a form of support company, which increases soft attack, movement speed in rough terrain, reconnaissance, and breakthrough, as well as aiding garrisons in suppression of partisans. Some countries can also build units of mutant animals, like mirelurks and radroaches.
• Back from the Brink: The Wardens of the White used to be a powerful if harsh peacekeeping force around Seattle and Washington in general, but were practically destroyed in the conflicts that established the Immortal's Brotherhood as hegemon over the area, with small remnants of the Wardens settling in the Old Country, Safehaven and the area that'd become known as Passkeeper territory. However, all three of those can have circumstances lead to the Warden remnants rising to power (or in the Passkeeper case, the side of them that still firmly identifies as Wardens) and together or alone restore Warden dominance over Washington, and potentially far surpass the old Wardens in the reach of their hegemony.
• Balkanize Me: A constant possibility for New California and Caesar's Legion, since they're made up of numerous smaller nations unified behind a single banner. Low stability can lead to breakaway movements, or hostile focuses implanting agent provocateurs to foment rebellion.
• Beam Spam: One flavor of Squad Automatic Weapon you can issue to your Fireteams are Energy Support weapons, from Rapid Capacitor Weapons through Gatling Lasers to Tesla Cannons. While they don't provide as much oomph against flesh and blood infantry as their bullet firing cousins, they have extra kick against armored targets, making them the logical choice for factions who expect to go up against robots or power armor.
• Becoming the Mask: The Republic of the Rio Grande started out as a puppet regime propped up by the US before the Great War. By the game's start date, however, it has long since embraced its pretensions of being the proper successor to Pre-War Mexico.
• Beef Gate:
  • Tlaloc effectively serves as this for non-Mexican factions, especially Caesar's Legion, as it won't hesitate to nuke or attack anyone crossing the old border with a significant-enough force. It also acts as this for the Mexican factions as well, as no one can really wage any wars without its blessing. Once it dies, however, all bets are off.
  • Sky Reaver, a generic raider nation in central Nevada, is this for New Vegas. It's the only neighbor to not be affiliated with the NCR, thus invading it is the only way to reach other non-aligned nations. However, Sky Reavers sport over 20 divisions with decent industry, making it near impossible to invade early on.
  • MacArthur serves as this for the Montana Chapter, by virtue of being the vanguard of the Chicago Enclave. Invading it is pretty much a prerequisite for further expansion and meeting the Midwestern Brotherhood's objectives, though this is easier said than done due to MacArthur fielding veteran troops far more well-equipped than the surrounding tribals and raiders.
• Benevolent A.I.:
  • While Tlaloc certainly tries its best to be this, Maximilian (an AI personality based on the infamous Habsburg would-be Emperor) is even more so upon his "father's" death. He's genuinely concerned for his subjects' well-being, human or not, though whether his emphatic leadership survives in the wasteland is left to the player.
  • Santa Anna, who had already broken off from Tlaloc by game's start date, also strives to be this. On the other hand, he still retains the real Santa Anna's flaws and could wind up creating an AI-led dictatorship in his quest to recreate Mexico in his image.
• Blood Knight: The Immortal, leader of the Washington Brotherhood, constantly seeks new opponents to conquer and enslave, much to the satisfaction of his equally cruel and bloodthirsty followers. Unlike most raider nations, who fight because its fun, it's suggested that the Brotherhood is being driven to fight by something truly evil and sinister lurking beneath the ruins of Seattle.
• Canon Foreigner: Besides the major and minor canon nations, there are many new nations invented to fill the whole map. Many are minor nations of settlers, tribals, or raiders who mostly serve to provide easy targets for early game expansion and have a generic focus tree, but a few of them (Heaven's Gate, Broken Coast, Washington Brotherhood^note it's loosely based on the Brotherhood in a canceled game, but characters like the Immortal are all original, Nueva Aztlán, Chichen Itza, Republic of the Rio Grande, etc.) are majors featured on the campaign start menu among the "suggested nations", and have custom focuses and events.
• Canon Welding: The Wasteland series is welded into the Fallout universe here, complete with the Guardian/Ranger Citadel^note like in the Wasteland series, it starts out as the Guardian's headquarters but is repurposed into the Rangers' new headquarters if they conquer it and consolidate their position and characters from Wasteland 1 and 2.
• The Cartel: In Mexico, cartels are the equivalent of the raiders present north of the old border, but generally behave similarly. Costa Cafeinada, however, plays it especially straight, being a major source for genuine caffeine, which Baron Garcia uses for both legitimate and criminal ends.
• Chummy Commies: The Guerreros de Honduras are implied to be descended from communist revolutionaries, and are actively protecting Mexico - and arguably the rest of North America - from being invaded by the raider hordes of South America, purely out of a sense of duty.
• Church Militant: New Canaan can go down this path, especially should Joshua Graham assume power. Compared to Heaven's Gate, however, the Mormons can be much more tolerant to tribals and other Christian factions in their drive to fully restore Deseret, should they choose to.
• Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Edward J. Rusk, starting leader of the Texan Brotherhood, looks like John Wayne wearing a power armor.
• Cutting Off the Branches: While Courier Six in Fallout: New Vegas could side with the Legion, the NCR or Mr. House as well as create his own faction in the Wild Card route, their inclusion in this mod as a super-agent for Mr. House shows that they took Mr. House's side in the mod.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Mexican and North American factions have a small, innate negative relation modifier to each others. There's no such a modifier for the relations between US and Canadian factions. This makes sense as Canada was annexed by the US a long time before the Great War even happened.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • In New Vegas, the Boomers and Jacobstown weren't major factions to begin with, but the mod demotes them further because they don't even exist at the campaign's start. They can be created from New Vegas (which controls Nellis Airbase and Jacobstown at the start of the game), either by releasing them as Mr. House, or dismantling New Vegas after conquest.^note Setting custom rules before starting the campaign allows one of them (or both) to be independent nations right from the beginning
  • The Chosen One, the player character from Fallout 2 reappears, but they'll be merely one of the many rulers you can interact with, unless you play as them if you choose the minor faction of Arroyo.
  • The Courier got hit with this even worse than the Chosen One, not even having a hand in events that they are canonically famous for.
• Dirty Communists: One of the Tlaloc A.I.'s "children" is based on the famed Mexican revolutionary and agrarian socialist Emiliano Zapata, who was never influenced by communism in his lifetime, and was one of the few revolutionaries to not hold any presidential ambitions. Unfortunately, Tlaloc's historical records are heavily tinted by his American creators' intense bias against all left-wing ideologies and revolutionaries, meaning that the Zapata A.I. has developed into a brutal communist caudillo whose populist rhetoric doesn't quite match up to his autocratic actions.
• Divided States of America: More than 90 factions fighting for control of a territory covering the Western half of USA, Canada, and Mexico.
• Elite Army: Picking a Brotherhood of Steel chapter forces you to start with one. A relatively small population and industrial base means it will be necessary to leverage exclusive technology and crush the enemy in fast and decisive battles.
  • Becomes part of the downright sadistic difficulty curve of TV Town. You get some of the best tech of the game and you'll need every ounce of it to even stand a chance of surviving the hostile nations that surround your pitifully small and indefensible territory.
• Enforced Cold War: After a fashion. The “flower wars” between Nueva Aztlán and Chichen Itza are permitted by Tlaloc as a means to keep the status quo and a controlled outlet for violence, provided the conflicts don’t escalate to the point of toppling either side.
• Evil Versus Evil: Troll Warrens consists in a horde of genocidal super mutants who aim to conquer large parts of the continent. Their neighbours and targets include the Washington Brotherhood and the Mirelurk Tribe, themselves bloodthirsty raider factions with their own ambitions of conquest.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • Troll Warrens is a nation of super mutants. They suffer from a permanent -100 to their relations with other nations because they are super mutants (which is reciprocal: they hate every nations of "normies", too).
  • Security Chief Maier of Vault City is pushing to bring democratic elections to Vault City and end its isolationism in the process. He also is incredibly racist against Ghouls and aims to end the cooperation between Vault City and Gecko with prejudice. Ironically, First Citizen Lynette wants to deepen their collaboration with Gecko's ghouls, unlike her mother in Fallout 2 who was similarly prejudiced against ghouls.
  • Brotherhood of Steel factions have a huge relation negative modifier with the supermutants and mirelurks factions.
  • Lone Star deliberately averts this, being a place where regular humans and super mutants coexist in relative peace. That said, it's still possible for hardliners to usurp power and make it not unlike Troll Warrens.
  • If the Broken Brothers take over New Reno they aim to create a haven for the many types of mutants in the wasteland. They can opt out of allowing 'normies' into the fold entirely, instead subjugating whoever they can and crushing the ones who don't fall in line.
• The Federation:
  • The NCR tries to be this, though whether it succeeds, or how it does so depends on what policies are enacted and who assumes the Presidency.
    • Gameplay-wise, this trope is played completely straight as the NCR is depicted as a true federation with states outside of California (like the Mojave wasteland) having their own autonomous governments.
  • The Republic of the Rio Grande can also become this outright should it preserve its democratic institutions.
  • Not only is Lone Star the Texan equivalent of sorts, but with enough effort it could reunite and restore the Republic of Texas.
• Former Regime Personnel: There are still a number of former Enclave members and sympathizers lurking about, especially in the NCR and New Reno. While in Nueva Aztlán, the very un-Nahua looking Admiral Kinkaid is implied to also be ex-Enclave.
• From Nobody to Nightmare:
  • Troll Warren begins as a small tribe of super mutants hiding in a cave, but their focus tree will lead to them seeking to conquer and enslave much of Oregon and ultimately waging war with the Washington Brotherhood for dominance of the entire Pacific Northwest.
• The Fundamentalist: Heaven's Gate is a theocracy led by a man named "Saint Michael" who is considered to be God's mouthpiece, their flag is based on the Chi Rho, and they have high negative relation modifier with any other nation because they consider any other as being "unfaithful", including the other surrounding Christian nations (New Canaan, Murtaugh, etc.), while the rest of the map hate them because they are "religious nutjobs". A chain of focuses which allows to become violently militaristic includes an explicit reference to The Crusades.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • Mirelurk Tribe and Apostles' divisions can include battalions of human troops and battalions of Mirelurks. Both troops are hired from a single manpower pool. Technically, Mirelurks themselves are equipment that must be produced in arms factories.
  • Likewise, Super Mutant/ghoul factions can train both human and Super Mutant/ghoul troops from a single manpower pool. Like above, training Behemoths requires producing them in the same factories which produce weapons and various equipment.
  • Countries that become a Brotherhood of Steel chapter during the game^note the Shi can become the San Francisco Chapter through its tree, and countries released as puppets by Brotherhood nations have a special 'prove ourselves as a Chapter' focus tree don't count as Brotherhood countries for the purposes of achievements and, more problematically, for whether it is possible to invite or apply to join the Western Brotherhood of Steel faction.
  • Within Lost Hills, the ideologies are used to represent the popularity of specific factions that otherwise would all be Intellectual with just a lean towards the other ideology (or doubling down on one specific interpretation in the Cultists' case), with the Rhombians in particular having practically no connection to their associated ideology of Ruler. As ideology still influences the relationship between countries, this results in Lost Hills getting better along with normal mainstream Chapters when it is ruled by crazy technocultists than when it ruled by status quo conservatives, and the Rhombians (soft reformers with more of a bent towards assisting outsiders) get a bonus to their relationship with the Washington Brotherhood (a cruel, savage imperialistic chapter).
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Mirelurk Tribe is ruled by M'lulu, a female Mirelurk who regularly eats some of her subjects (which translates as -7 manpower per week, which results in a monthly manpower growth of +1 at campaign start).
• Going Native:
  • Mirelurk Tribe is a faction of people who lived with Mirelurks for enough time (one to three generations, depending on an early choice) they eventually believed they were Mirelurks themselves.
  • Admiral Gail Kinkaid is a downplayed example. Despite his American origins and implied connections with the Enclave, following down his focus trees reveals that he cares for Nueva Aztlán and seeks to establish a proper constitutional democracy out of genuine loyalty.
• Government in Exile: A successor state of New Canaan named "Canaan in Exile" will appear (formed in the Sorrows' most eastern province) if they are conquered by the White Legs.
• Greater-Scope Villain:
  • The mysterious Secretary of the Interior and the Chicago Enclave are this in the conflict between the Montana Chapter and MacArthur Detachment. They are arguably the closest thing to one for the mod, as well, due to the significant control it has over MacArthur and the fact that it's built up as a significantly powerful remnant of the Enclave. It is set to take center stage as the Big Bad of update 7.0, which fully adds the Midwest into the game.
  • Further east, the "Free States of Appalachia" is similarly built up as a potential threat especially given that it's still under the control of MODUS in some manner, while the East Coast Enclave based around DC are similarly hinted at.
  • While perhaps not thematically, in gameplay terms playing on the side of the NCR or Caesar's Legion will usually always mean there's a third party consolidating power while each party is at war. MacArthur, the Brotherhood of Steel, or any of the faction that unites Mexico often becomes the real final obstacle on the map, assuming they don't interrupt the NCR-Legion war outright.
• Grew Beyond Their Programming: Tlaloc was originally designed to protect Petro Chico assets and advance US interests (especially those who later became the Enclave). Eventually, its directives evolved to encompass protecting everyone and everything within the former national borders with nukes, as well as keeping the (relative) peace between the major Mexican factions.
• Grim Up North:
  • What used to be Washington and Oregon is now a frozen, radiation-wracked hell on Earth, populated with cannibal tribes, a deranged cult of Mirelurk worshippers, and the genocidal Super Mutants hiding in The Warren. All this in addition to the bloodthirsty Washington Brotherhood, who seem to have fallen into the thrall of something they found buried in the endless, flesh-rending blizzard of Seattle.
  • Not that Canada is in much better shape, either. Much of their land is permanently under nuclear winter, and tends to be filled with Crazy Survivalist tribes, Ghouls either doing their best white walker impression or still fighting the Great War, or the local massive federation of pirate clans.
• Hidden Depths: One potential path for Lanius has him not just usurping Caesar, but also transforming the Legion into the more democratic, and ironically more historically authentic, Res Publica. This serves to underscore just how intelligent, and open to change, Lanius can actually be, if given the right incentives.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Certain Raider nations, who are considered savage even by their already subterranean standards, will indulge in long pork. This will ease some of their supply problems but it will, logically, penalize your manpower generation. You can choose to encourage or curtail the practice, should you take control of one.
• Jack of All Stats:
  • Amongst aircraft types, Airships are equally at home performing interception, strategic bombing or close support missions, with enough armor that they can safely airdrop troops right into a battle with minimal fuss. About their only downside is their slow speed, which largely disappears in their higher levels.
  • Vertibirds, especially those of the Gunship configuration, are just as flexible as Airships without the comparatively huge time investment to build them, albeit tempered by being much easier to individually bring down. Their greater speed also means they excel at dropping your elite soldiers far behind enemy lines, preferably right on top of their capital.
• Just the First Citizen: If Leonardo Mora assumes power in the Republic of the Rio Grande as a dictator in all but name, he still presents himself as a humble servant of the people.
• Kill It with Fire: One of the branches of the Demolitions support tech involves equipping your troops with flamethrowers and incendiary cannons. This actually gives them more hard attack than using conventional explosives, as well as breakthrough, at the cost of less defense and soft attack, making them good for fighting robots or in offensive operations.
• Killed Off for Real: The Courier can be killed like any other agent once captured. Not plot armor to save them here.
• La Résistance: The Guerreros de Honduras, which is implied to be descended from Latin American resistance fighters, in the vein of the Zapatistas and Sandinistas.
• Legacy Character: Considering the real El Santo died in 1984, the leader of the Free Fighters who holds that name is most likely one^note It should be noted that none of his real life relatives who carry on his legacy go by El Santo, the closest being his grandson, who goes by El Santo Jr..
• Masked Luchador: The Free Fighters' nation in Mexico is led by a trio of them, named The Green Titan, the Blue Devil, and El Santo. This nation is apparently born from the merging of several tribes of them roaming the region. The Free Fighters' flag consists in a Mexico flag with a Luchador mask instead of the eagle.
• Modern Mayincatec Empire: Downplayed, but Nueva Aztlán and Chichen Itza are the closest equivalents to this trope in the mod. Rather than simply being tribals or Mexicans who had reverted to Pre-Columbian cultures, they have retained at least some Pre-War knowledge and technology, making them one of the more powerful factions in-game.
• Moral Myopia: Being based on Vanilla "Democracy" ideology, factions governed by the People ideology get a non-reciprocal negative modifier toward factions who generated world tension. But, since factions in Old World Blues are more warmongering than in Vanilla and more prone to annex lands, you'll quickly have tons of nations who dislike others for disturbing the regional peace or annexing their foes' territories while they themselves have the same behavior (NCR is notable for its violent foreign policy).
• Multiple-Choice Past: The first focuses in all countries' focus trees allow the player to choose certain aspects of what happened in that country's past. Each choice for each event offers different bonuses.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Each of the two Cartel nations are led by a ghoul ganglord.
• Obviously Evil: The Washington Brotherhood would be best described as gleefully evil, if they were capable of glee, or indeed any emotions beyond ice cold murderousness. If the demonic-looking Midwest Power Armor or the red and black flag and focus tree icons don't immediately clue you in on their nature, then perhaps their deliberate association with ice and cold or their use of machines which produce complex materials in exchange for being fed living humans just might.
• One Nation Under Copyright:
  • The Texas Arms Association, which starts out as part of the Republic of the Rio Grande, is a consortium of American-descended businesses that survived the Great War as gunsmiths and industrial tycoons. Should they break off, they become this trope outright.
  • Costa Cafeinada, run by a ghoul named Baron Garcia, is this crossed with The Cartel, controlling one of the last places left that produces coffee.
  • New Vegas itself also counts. Mr. House treats it like a company and fancies himself its CEO.
  • The Baron's Republic, which can emerge should the NCR fall into civil war, is heavily implied to be this, being dominated by powerful ranchers and caravan companies.
  • Petro-Chico is an interesting combination of this with All Hail the Great God Mickey!: they are led by "El Seeyo" based on a religion derived from how a corporation operates. Their deities are a corruption of "shareholders", and they believe all will be judged at the end of the "Fiscalear".
• Pirate: Broken Coast is a raider nation located on the coast of British Columbia. Its flag is distinctly pirate-ish (a arm wielding a scimitar on blue background on the left half, a skull-and-crossed-bones above a hourglass on a black background on the right half), and its specific focus tree has many navy-related items.
• The Remnant:
  • Two factions are descended from the Enclave even if they aren't referred as such. If certain conditions are met, they can become the Enclave once again.
  • The Republic of the Rio Grande began as a puppet government set up by the US before the Great War as Mexico was being pacified. Which would make it, technically, one of the only Pre-War states still around.
  • The Guerreros de Honduras, starting off at the southernmost section of the map, is implied to be descended from socialist resistance fighters and is still fighting the United States long after the Great War.
  • Aside from Granite Company in Eureka, MacArthur is the last organized remnant of the Enclave west of the Mississippi, being comprised of surviving units from Navarro and reinforcements from further east. It's also revealed, however, that they're simply the vanguard of the much more powerful Chicago branch of the Enclave, under the enigmatic Secretary of the Interior.
  • In what used to be Canada, the Kingdom of Manitoba claims to be last of the pre-War Canadian resistance, while various American and Canadian communist holdouts are still duking it out in the frigid prairies.
• Renegade Splinter Faction:
  • The Brotherhood is defined by each chapter having their own goals that only nominally line up with the mission of the original Lost Hills Bunker. As long as they follow the Brotherhood Codex, they're still considered fair game, but some chapters will interpret the Codex in radically different ways. Up to and including Lost Hills itself.
    • The Washington Brotherhood is the greatest example, being lead by a bloodthirsty tyrant attempting to pacify Washington. The Immortal however is still loyal to the codex and will respond to Lost Hills communications, but is entirely capable of forming their own faction after dominating Washington. Lost Hills themselves doesn't care if it's The Cause or the Washington Brotherhood who wins the civil war, they'll simply differ to the winner as the true chapter.
    • The Guardians are already considered this by the game's start, being willingly ignored by Lost Hills for years due to their zealous techno-religious ways. However should the conquer Esmeralda Valley and take TV Town then Lost Hills will begrudgingly offer them back into the fold and tolerate their zealotry as the treasure and knowledge contained in TV Town is simply too great to ignore. If they accept they'll official be renamed to the Guardian Brotherhood.
    • Much like in New Vegas, Elijah's extremist views and terminal case of Old World Blues have made Lost Hills consider him something of a renegade, not helped by his driven compulsion to unearth the secrets of the old world and unleash them on the wasteland in an effort to 'wipe the slate clean.' This can be seen in the Mojave focus tree, where the expedition is so ill-equipped that Elijah wonders if they're trying to get him killed. This attitude seems to only extend to Elijah however, as if they lose Helios One then Lost Hills and Lost Hills recalls their remnants, then they'll install McNamara as a unit leader for his service in keeping the chapter together under such strenuous conditions.
    • The Texan Brotherhood by all accounts has abandoned their mission in order to become the protectors and peacekeepers of Texas. While Lost Hills can establish contact with them, they'll only rejoin the Brotherhood of Steel if they opt to abandon their peacekeeping efforts. Otherwise Lost Hills instead defers to their own splinter faction in the Alamo Chapter instead.
    • The Lyons Expedition is much like the Texan Brotherhood, with their efforts focused towards peacekeeping. However Lost Hills cares little as long as the expedition succeeds in their efforts of securing the technology in the region. It ultimately doesn't matter if it's Lyons themselves or the Outcasts that take control the region as long as Lost Hills is sent the data on things like Liberty Prime, Project Purity, and the Anchorage simulation.
    • Lost Hills themselves can become ruled by radical Reformists or Tech Cultists if you allow them to muscle out the Rhombians or Maxsonians. The Cultists can form the Steel Plague, which worship technology and implant themselves with cybernetic upgrades. Meanwhile. the Reformists can opt to submit to Shady Sands authority and join the NCR as the Steel Rangers. Both of these options effectively ends the main chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel, leaving the other chapters without support from Lost Hills.
• Retcon:
  • Prior to the Monster of the East update (October 2020), the territory located south of New Vegas/The Fiends, east of the NCR, and west of Caesar Legion was owned by a couple of minor raider nations with generic content. Since the update, it's owned by a single nation named "Mojave Territories", which belongs to the NCR faction, which leader is General Lee Oliver, and which benefits from custom content.
  • The same update changed the most eastern territory of Caesar's Legion into Lanius's Cohort [sic], an independent member of the same faction ruled by Legate Lanius.
• Rock Beats Laser:
  • It's entirely possible for a Tribal society to conquer an Advanced society, and given the mechanics at play, it's easier than you might think. On a tactical level, because they're technically suited for interception missions, a wood and canvas glider launched via catapult and crewed by tribals can shoot down B-29s, A-10s or even B-58s with alarming regularity.
  • Almost mentioned word for word in the first tech on the Asymmetrical Warfare strategy, which asserts, "Lasers won't win wars, our hordes of warriors will."
• Schizo Tech: Naval tribal-tier ships consists in 19th century sailing ships coexisting with triremes (warships from Ancient Greece). Also, the lowest tech for tribal ships light guns is a light machinegun, while the next tier is a repurposed medieval-era siege engine.
  • Navies in general are great for technological hodgepodges, especially if you don't coordinate hull and equipment research. It's not uncommon to have modern yachts mounting the aforementioned Roman-era artillery, or Viking longboats and Native dugout canoes fitted with microwave arrays and laser blasters.
• Sealed Evil in a Can:
  • Investigating Area 51 can result in an army of robots controlled by the Zetans emerging, who were sealed inside Area 51 to protect the rest of the world from them.
  • In what was once Mexico, there's the aptly named Armageddon Station. A massive missile silo and bunker complex built by the United States, it was originally intended to launch retaliatory strikes in the event of nuclear war. For reasons unknown, however, the military staff never launched its payload in 2077, instead sealing it up before abandoning their posts. Whoever controls and successfully opens it could potentially reignite the horrors of the Great War if careless enough.
• Sequel Hook:
  • By the late game, there’s a possibility to intercept a transmission from MODUS, implying that not only had it survived the events of Fallout 76, but that the "Free State of Appalachia" will be a major nation when the mod reaches the East Coast.
  • One more general example is the presence of focuses in trees that do nothing and can't be taken, but have the effect part explain it will come in a later version, usually because it involves areas and nations that aren't implemented yet.
  • Playing as the Montana Chapter, on top of being an offshoot of the Midwestern Brotherhood, also involves dealing with an enemy based at MacArthur AFB. Said enemy is revealed to be the vanguard force for the Chicago Enclave, suggesting that the latter will play a significant role once the mod reaches the Midwest.
• Shout-Out:
  • Raider nations with the generic focus tree have mechanization-related focuses named "Calling All Warboys" and "The Magnum Opus".
  • One political faction for the Bone Dancers is named "The Pillar Men."
  • The Mirelurk Tribe is ruled by (and worships as a god) a Mirelurk named M'lulu. Advancing far enough in their focus tree results in the faction being renamed "M'lyeh" while their initial flag is replaced by the head of some sort of winged octopus, and they have a conquest-related achievement named "The Call of M'lulu".
  • The three starting Mirelurk division of the Mirelurk Tribe's are named N'Gasta, Kvata, and Kvakis. They also have a national focus named "N'Gasta! Kvata! Kvakis!"
  • One of the national spirits for the Eighties is named "Road Warrior".
  • Factions with the generic raider focus tree can acquire a national spirit which improves their production of APCs called "Metal Boxes".
  • The Free Fighters can, if led by The Blue Devil, follow a Focus to improve their tech level called Love, Death & Robots.
  • In contrast to Nueva Aztlán and Chichen Itza, Costa Cafeinada wouldn't be out of place in Narcos, with Baron Garcia's appearance even calling to mind Tony Montana and Tommy Vercetti.
  • Deep in New Vegas' focus tree is a focus to improve the efficacy of their robotic soldiers called Just Like the Simulations.
  • The Chained Choir is led by a psychic woman who was part of a pre-War government experiment and was given the numerical designation 0011.
  • The Ironmongers are a group of Super Mutants who believe that red stripes make things go faster. And yes, they're pretty much Fallout Orks.
  • One of TV Town's two (main) paths is the Path of Now and Forever — though the actual doctrine espoused in it is closer to the Eternal Doctrine.
  • The Archdiocese of Santa Fe's holy mission is to preserve vast quantities of pre-war writings, and has a particular reverence of an engineer-turned-monk canonized as Saint Leibowitz.
• Space Orcs: Not only is Troll Warren a nation of Super Mutants (who are basically Fallout's Orcs), but the faction is a low-tech, genocidal nation determined to conquer large parts of the map.
• Start My Own: One of the three paths available to Lanius' Cohort is for Lanius to turn against Caesar not to take over Caesar's Legion, but to forge his own Legion out of the East. This new Eastern Legion has even less pretensions of civilisation than Caesar's (the faction it founds is Lanius' Hordes), but from Lanius' perspective it can be a great success as it allows him to reign over a vast and powerful domain with no strings or leash.
• Take That!: The Texas Arms Association is led by one Todd Howitzer, and his description and focus tree are filled with jabs at Todd Howard and Fallout 76.
• Technology Levels: Items in the research tech tree has been sorted between three levels named "tribal" (primitive technology and scrapped, improvised weapons and tools), "civilized" (early-to-mid 20th century technology, as well as low-tech robots and salvaged power armors), and "advanced" (21th century and futuristic technologies; iconic Fallout stuff like miniguns, most robots and power armors, etc. are found there). Most nations are barred from accessing advanced technology, the obvious exceptions being the Brotherhood of Steel-related nations and Vault City. Some are also able to tech up to Advanced technology using events and focus trees. Some of the most primitive factions are initially locked at tribal level. The 3.0 update fine-tunes the different levels, with some nations having access to only tribal tech on some technologies but far more advanced tech elsewhere.
• Uplifted Animal: The Burrows are home to the S'Lanter, a species of anthropomorphic raccoons mutated with FEV by researchers at West Tek before the War, and who have to decide whether or not to trust humans. They were originally intended to appear in Fallout, but were cut for not quite fitting with the rest of the lore.
• What If?: Some focus-triggered events represent choices and events that happened before the start-date, a prominent example being that Mr. House can choose to have incorporated different tribes as his casino-running Three Families (the Ultra-Luxe can be run by the Consiglieres (reformed Fiends), Gomorrah can be run by the False Khaganate (an induced splinter of the Great Khans), and the Tops can be run by the Kings).
• Wacky Wayside Tribe: In Mexico, there's a playable faction of tribals descended from Petro Chico executives and employees who used an oil refinery as a shelter during the Great War.
• You Cannot Kill An Idea: Even after generations, echoes of both the Master's Unity and the Enclave persist throughout the wasteland, whether it be remnant factions or those inspired by their ideals.
• Zerg Rush: The Asymmetrical Warfare tech tree is all about employing the quality of quantity to overwhelm technologically superior foes, making it a solid choice for Tribal nations looking to bring their Civilized neighbors down a peg. Part of what makes Caesar's Legion the juggernaut that it is, is combining Asymmetrical Warfare with access to a colossal manpower pool, letting them field absolutely mind-boggling numbers of soldiers.