The NCR was immediately imperialist upon its foundation and by 2281, despite their profession only existing for about 12 years, the brahmin and agri-barons have almost fully seized the NCR state. President Kimball himself overturned any regulations on the barons, letting them do as they please.
I suspect there was some intention to have the NCR and the Legion directly parallel one another more clearly, but that seems to have gotten muddled, possibly due to time constraints not fully fleshing out the Legion. An example I constantly think about is the NCR essentially created the Powder Gangers through forced labor. Powder Gangers were formerly prisoners conscripted to maintain the monorail. The NCR's expansion into the Mojave meant stretching their manpower thin to protect against Legion raids, so their prison was seized by the prisoners, who then would go on to raid and pillage settlements same as any band of legionaries would.
The NCR and the Legion represent the same thing done in different ways. They're both rebuilding the contradictions of the old world, although the NCR decided to do it quickly, already becoming a capitalist-captured neoliberal empire within 80 years of its formation, while the Legion is doing it slowly, starting over all the way back as an ancient, slave labor based absolute monarchy.
If you really want me to get into it, I'm relatively convinced the Legion eventually gains the upper hand over the NCR.
If you really want me to get into it, I’m relatively convinced the Legion eventually gains the upper hand over the NCR.
Explain how. I'm not convinced that the outnumbered LARPers with sharp sticks are going to overcome a massive, standardized army with most of the capabilities of a 1940s era military. I can't really imagine the Legion standing as even a rump state more than 5 years after the death of Edward Sallow, regardless of who calls themself Caesar II
If any of the NCR's technological and military superiority mattered they wouldn't be worried about the Legion seizing Hoover Dam, they wouldn't be asking every favor possible of a single mail carrier and they wouldn't ever have to rely upon heavily guarded brahmin caravans to supply their frontier.
NCR isn't operating on a model of development. They've already hit the imperialist stage of contradiction where profit is the primary incentive. The NCR's problem isn't using their superior military and laser guns to kill a bunch of desert fascists speaking bullshit Latin. Their problem is creeping stagnation and lack of infrastructure.
Legion has been developing territories they conquer, based on stuff Lanius and that one Arizona trader says. You can talk Lanius out of pushing westward because the Mojave isn't fully self-sufficient yet, for example.
So, based on all that, I see NCR crumbling due to its internal contradictions. Legion moves in west. Traders prefer Legion due to safety of the roads and low taxation. Barons open trade with the east, then it doesn't matter if it's Caesar himself or not.
The NCR was immediately imperialist upon its foundation and by 2281, despite their profession only existing for about 12 years, the brahmin and agri-barons have almost fully seized the NCR state. President Kimball himself overturned any regulations on the barons, letting them do as they please.
I suspect there was some intention to have the NCR and the Legion directly parallel one another more clearly, but that seems to have gotten muddled, possibly due to time constraints not fully fleshing out the Legion. An example I constantly think about is the NCR essentially created the Powder Gangers through forced labor. Powder Gangers were formerly prisoners conscripted to maintain the monorail. The NCR's expansion into the Mojave meant stretching their manpower thin to protect against Legion raids, so their prison was seized by the prisoners, who then would go on to raid and pillage settlements same as any band of legionaries would.
The NCR and the Legion represent the same thing done in different ways. They're both rebuilding the contradictions of the old world, although the NCR decided to do it quickly, already becoming a capitalist-captured neoliberal empire within 80 years of its formation, while the Legion is doing it slowly, starting over all the way back as an ancient, slave labor based absolute monarchy.
If you really want me to get into it, I'm relatively convinced the Legion eventually gains the upper hand over the NCR.
Explain how. I'm not convinced that the outnumbered LARPers with sharp sticks are going to overcome a massive, standardized army with most of the capabilities of a 1940s era military. I can't really imagine the Legion standing as even a rump state more than 5 years after the death of Edward Sallow, regardless of who calls themself Caesar II
If any of the NCR's technological and military superiority mattered they wouldn't be worried about the Legion seizing Hoover Dam, they wouldn't be asking every favor possible of a single mail carrier and they wouldn't ever have to rely upon heavily guarded brahmin caravans to supply their frontier.
NCR isn't operating on a model of development. They've already hit the imperialist stage of contradiction where profit is the primary incentive. The NCR's problem isn't using their superior military and laser guns to kill a bunch of desert fascists speaking bullshit Latin. Their problem is creeping stagnation and lack of infrastructure.
Legion has been developing territories they conquer, based on stuff Lanius and that one Arizona trader says. You can talk Lanius out of pushing westward because the Mojave isn't fully self-sufficient yet, for example.
So, based on all that, I see NCR crumbling due to its internal contradictions. Legion moves in west. Traders prefer Legion due to safety of the roads and low taxation. Barons open trade with the east, then it doesn't matter if it's Caesar himself or not.