Ilosar said:
I don't think it said he razed Vegas in that ending, although I might be wrong. IIRC he occupied Vegas like it was a military target and destroyed only those who resisted. If you willingly join the Legion and don't resist, they won't kill you. My point about the Legion is that even if they're brutal and you wind up a slave, at least you don't have to worry about some drug addicted fiend killing you just because he can. If you don't try to resist the Legion you'll just be able to assimilate and live a pretty decent life (decent by wasteland standards). As long as you keep your mouth shut, you don't have anything to worry about.
It's exactly because of this that the Legion knew they had to keep pursuing the Remnants. If the Remnants could do that to well trained soldiers, imagine what they could do if they decided to march into a Legion town. They could massacre every man woman and child there and burn the town to the ground, Lanius doesn't like needlessly sacrificing soldiers but this isn't needless sacrifice, they're well armed criminals who have no loyalty to the Legion and could potentially hurt a lot more people than the couple hundred who were lost hunting them.
The point here though is that at least they're not fighting each other. NCR can barely protect its citizens from a couple drug addicted raiders, while in Legion territory crime is almost unheard of. Instead of hundreds of tribes of raiders fighting each other, it's one big nation that unites all the tribes and ends most of the needless death and fighting.
He's not even as bad as Caesar really. Seeing as he's one of the only people in the game who can be convinced that the battle for Hoover Dam isn't worth the sacrifice, he's a pretty sensible guy even if he is brutal.
It's stated several times in game that caravan companies are safer doing business with the Legion, and that they also prefer to because there aren't any random taxes or tolls on Legion roads.
One of the character's (I forget who) said something along the lines of, "The NCR are just robbers who legislate their crimes first so that it's legal."
Edit: Goodsprings can be wiped out by a couple convicts who escaped from an NCR prison, Primm is being attacked by more escaped convicts and the NCR won't help because it's "outside their jurisdiction", and Novac is being protected by Boone and Manny not the NCR. All I'm saying is that even if you're a slave in the Legion, at least you don't have to worry about some escaped convict blowing you up with a stick of dynamite.
The numerous factions in the wasteland are the reason the war will never stop, and why House thinks humanity will destroy itself all over again. They might be willing to side with the other factions when it's convenient for them, but eventually they'll just go back to war when the NCR wants to expand. The Legion assimilates the other factions and tribes and makes them part of the Legion.
The Legion doesn't seem to be exactly starving. The reason we don't see any Legion farms is because it's the front line in a major campaign and the food comes from Legion farms in the East, how many soldiers do you think were farming in the trenches of WWI?
They honestly aren't that great for the Mojave, they're willing to side with criminals (Van Graffs, McLafferty), they have far too many bureaucratic misunderstandings that end with people getting hurt (not serving food to Freesiders), several people high up in NCR command are corrupt, they have trouble protecting citizens from a couple drug addicts, they can't handle a prison riot, their economy is collapsing, their citizens are starving, and they're doomed to make the same mistakes the pre-war government did.
Edit:
Wintermind said:
Yeah that's pretty much it, the Legion might not be very nice but at least you know what you're getting into there. House could turn into a crazy dictator and the NCR has trouble just keeping its citizens safe and fed.
