Fallout Lore: The Exiled Midwestern Brotherhood of Steel, Banished in Game and in Real Life 

This chapter of the Brotherhood was the true vision of the Brotherhood that Roger Maxson wanted. No isolationism, trading with locals, defending the peace from threats, using technology they found to rebuild the ravaged wastelands.

Dam the Midwest brotherhood power armor looks better than the original

They are BASED Brotherhood of Steel chapter, one of the rare good factions that try to do good despite the odds in the wastelands. One of the reasons why I love them is because they don't discriminate and are willing to recruit anyone willing to join them and fight for their cause. The greatest difference between this faction and the rest of the Brotherhood is the willingness to accept non-humans into their ranks. During the war with the Calculator, the Brotherhood's forces consisted of survivors from the expedition, human recruits from tribes and towns, reformed raiders and religious fanatics, ghouls, sapient (hairy) death claws, super mutants, and machine legions from Vault 0. Many recruits were defeated foes pressed into the Brotherhood's service (or in the case of autonomous robots, recovered from the Calculator's repair bays). I still considered them canon.

The concept art for this game is insane

Honestly fallout tactics is really underrated and I was surprised how much Fallout 3 was inspired by tactics. Its one of my favourite fallouts

Recruiting a deathclaw makes this the high point in the series for me.

This version of the brotherhood feels so much more powerful and superior, both in ideals and firepower, compared to what we have in the current games. It’s a mystery to me how we still haven’t seen anything close to this, not even their armor.

Fallout Tactics could possibly fit into the lore with Colorado as the events of Tactics take place between 2197 to 2198, while Fallout: New Vegas takes place in 2281, leaving plenty of time for the Midwestern Brotherhood to have pulled out of Colorado (its not really in the Midwest anyway and I figure the Midwestern BoS would have abandoned it to consolidate in the actual Midwest). This would have given the Legion plenty of time to have conquered Colorado in the 2200s.

The chicago/midwest brotherhood is canon, there isn't much discussion about it, they are referenced in later games.

i personally think both this and new vegas are the best ways to represent the brotherhood there are despite being so far appart. That's because they make more inner sense than any depiction by bethesda and even fallout 2's

Fallout Tactics is canon and so is the midwestern brotherhood. Emil (The main writer of the series) confirmed it on Twitter a few weeks ago.

Bethesda has stated that high level events of Fallout Tactics are canon. In New Vegas, Caesar mentions having battled the Midwestern Brotherhood before. He's captured Brotherhood scribes back east that didn't even know the name of the Brotherhood's founder, Roger Maxson. He's taken down Brotherhood bunkers before, and states how difficult it is to do due to the individual power of Brotherhood Paladins. The pieces of T-45 Power Armor that his Centurions don themselves with, came from defeated Brotherhood Paladins. Given this, it's safe to assume that the "Calculator Destroyed" ending for Tactics is canon. Otherwise the Midwestern BoS would be so technologically and militarily superior with control over Vault 0, that they would've annihilated Caesar's Legion at first contact. Vault 0 is referenced in the new Fallout show as well.

I really think it’s annoying how some people constantly attack the idea of the Eastern Brotherhood of Steel. The more you look into the lore, you kind of realize that the Eastern chapter are just sort of a natural progression of what the brotherhood would likely become to survive. A nation. Honestly the eastern BoS and Midwestern BoS are very similar by Fallout 4, so I wouldn’t be surprised if as communication between the two chapters increases, they sort of fuse together.

I’ve been looking for Fallout/Elder scrolls podcast and lore stories for literally over a decade this is certainly one of the top ones in terms of knowledge and quality! Thank you

They should make a fallout game where its base with the Midwest brother hood of steel make it catchy. U come out of your vault into a destroyed chicago and find your city thrown in disorder and war and choose who to side with.

It occurred to me the other day, the midwestern brotherhood settling in the capital as they continue moving east would have been the perfect basis for fo3’s brotherhood and explain why they are so different, especially in regards to their recruitment strategies

Legion leadership says " We fought the brotherhood east of the colorado" so they have but the midwestern brotherhood would of crushed legion if they had the calculators army

Watched this cause I couldn't sleep, seems like another video to leave in the background while drifting off but stayed up researching as much about the Midwest BoS after this. You're mad underated and definitely deserve more views.

It’s said by Caesar himself that they have defeated, or Atleast engaged, the Brotherhood in Colorado. He talks about interrogating brotherhood members that “didn’t even know the name of their founder”. My guess is, considering new Vegas also stated that the enclave is in Chicago, that the Brotherhood was severely cut down due to attacks on two fronts. The canceled Brotherhood Of Steel 2 was also supposed to have Caesars Legion as an enemy faction, so there is that.

No one gonna mention that @3:37 the brotherhood has multiple Japanese AM6 zeros and a chinook helicopter with a rocket inside of it? Wacky ass concept art fr

While the Events in Fallout Tactics are not Canon, the Midwestern Brotherhood does exist, in one way or another, their journey from the Western Brotherhood is mentioned in Fallout 3 and 4. In what form they exist, well, I guess Bethesda is keeping them as a joker to pull.

Guess the TV show got this video a resurrection. For the next fallout game i hope mutants become a people again not just 99% mindless monsters. In fallout 4 they run around blowing up themselves and everyone around them. When they cant reproduce... Is a random wastelander really worth dying like that over? You're strong enough you rip off their head, why blow yourself up? I hope fallout 5 is more of an RPG with different species/races with unique or different views on life in the wasteland

FoT remains to this day the game I finished most. Anyone who wanted a sequel should check out Dustwind which is a spiritual successor.

I'd just make tactics semi-canon. The events did happen as described but probably not in the places described.

The crucifixion and the overlap of Colorado makes me feel like the Midwest BOS turned into what if playing as the warrior is ceasers story itself

As you talk about Tactics moving away from the original ideal from the original, the Far Harbor soundtrack kicks in making it sound that much more saddening. Well done👏👏👏

Really enjoying your content man, glad you found the motivation and or time to keep making videos!

A few corrections. This game takes place between Fallouts 1 and 2… but due to the two mountain ranges between Chicago and The Boneyard, the lack of knowledge of the events of Tactics in Fallout 2 makes sense. These two games might as well take place on different worlds. Also, depending on if The Warrior has Good/Neutral/Bad Karma, if they convince the brain of their old commander to stand down, decide to shoot The Calculator, or let the timer at the end of the game run out… that’s a total of six endings. And we can infer from all other games that the “guns blazing” ending is the canonical one

your forgetting time, bos could of moved out of the region by the time Legion started expanding in that direction.

I think vault 0, ceaser and the Midwest can totally exist in the same area that would make a freaking cool game

OK, now you make me want to play FOT again.

Back in the 12th of April Emil Pagliarulo tweeted including tactics in the timeline so its safe to assume it happened (Or the writing team is eorking around that assumption) but i think if we do learn anything its gonna get the vegas treatment where story progression will have the faction be killed off or only a remenament in name remain like a hidden valley situation.

According to the wiki the Legion only has a part of Colorado and the Tactics game takes place in like 2190. The Legion did fight the BOS so it's possible they fought the Midwest BOS.

Vault 0 was shown in one of the bonus videos on Amazon Prime...mabey tactics will be Canon again

Tactics is canon, Emil Pagliarulo (the main writer of the series) confirmed it last month on Twitter, including the game in the official timeline of the series.

Its interesting to see how alot of the ideas in Tactics have been ported over to the east coast games, such as the Brotherhood becoming more open to outsiders in Fallout 3, The Prydwyn in Fallout 4, The Fallout 3 design of the Enclave armor in heavily resembling design of The Midwestern Power Armor Etc.

"Raiders occupy the majority of Chicago" Glad to see the bombs didn't change everything in 200 years

Found a new fun game. Take a shot everything you hear brotherhood.

As a midwesterner, I would very much like to know why I was unaware of power armor with pronghorn antlers and why I don't have at least one at my disposal *RIGHT NOW.* I mean, Chicago is a definitely too far east for pronghorn in our current US, but antlers in general is so midwestern. I love it. And it makes sense that the midwestern BoS would be more cooperative with other factions and civilians than the eastern BoS, since we're generally known for being friendly and community-oriented. But seriously, if they don't have agility/perception customized settings on their pronghorn suits, I would be sorely disappointed. Those things are hard to catch.

As someone who is from St.louis, having a game take place in this area would be sold like hot cakes

IMO tactics is the best looking 2D fallout. It had a pretty solid game editor too but afaik no fan made content went very far, certainly none of the stuff I tried to make did lol. I wanted to make a more story based game but bounced off how much work game development takes.

Honestly, the head canon I have is this brotherhood chapter is in Canada. I know it’s probably wrong, since I haven’t played the game, but think about it like this: After the Calculator they decided to better restrict knowledge of their location. Part of that could be giving contradictory or incorrect info on location. They were lost in a storm while flying airships. Add in Vault-Tecs wide reach and maybe Vault 0 could be a hidden vault to house a army for emergencies. Would be interesting imo that they’re in the fallout world like that, since it would cause future plot hooks for games. How many Calculators are there hidden? And if the midwestern brotherhood doesn’t exist, could the Calculator still exist? What happens when the midwestern brotherhood is discovered by other brotherhood? Could make a Tactical game where your a third party dealing with that crap. Or running from something in a attempt to find this rumored location.

Caesar controlling Colorado always made the premise of the Battles of Hoover Dam sort of pointless. You'd think a guy cosplaying as a Roman would appreciate the use of tactics in siege warfare & water access. All he needed to do was divert or block enough tributaries of the Colorado River so as to drop the water level below the intake for Hoover Dam. At that point it is "Lights out, New Vegas". He could then await any reprisals from Mr. House or the NCR on the high ground in his own territory.

Good content. Got my subscription

I honestly would love a major side quest, one of the future fallout titles to have a sort of east versus West brotherhood of steel ideological war. I think that fallout three especially was a missed opportunity with the brotherhood outcast and the lions brotherhood of steel. I think it’d be really cool for a future game to have one of the Big side quest would allow you to either join the side of the western brotherhood ideals, or the side of the eastern brotherhood ideals, and your actions dictate the future of the brotherhood moving forward.

Need a return to Chicago. I'd like to see the Children of Atom play a major role, having infiltrated and overtaken the BoS, causing half of it to transition into the Brotherhood of Atom and half to go into exile outside of the city. Player can side with either or neither, and can betray both.

Midwest brotherhood is the best brotherhood! Then again Tactics was my first Fallout game.

I'd never really considered how much of monumental task it was for the NCR, poorly trained and underequipped, to assault Helios One and actually win until I saw the artwork at 04:50. Guys are fighting uphill against barricaded opponents wielding power armour and laser weaponry. That I'm posting this on 6th of June is also rather poignant. Huge similarly there

Great video!

So there is thematic overlap between Paladin Latham from tactics and Paladin Ashur from the Pitt expansion for 3. This strikes me as a situation similar to to the post Disney Legends continuity for StarWars where it's not cannon, but it's not not canon, and while it's left in that sort of limbo state later authors can go back and mine and then tweak the bits that they like and that fit in well with the evolving narrative.

Midwestern Brotherhood of Steel-[Enneagram Tritype 8w7-5w6-3w4]

I believe that there could be crossover between the MW brotherhood and the legion, but not as large as tactics would imply. I know that the siege of Denver was a big conflict for the legion and would explain their zealous hatred for a reliance on technology. it would also explain their hubris when it comes to taking on the NCR. I think if the were able to throw out MW brotherhood then they would feel the NCR wasn't a huge step up in terms of of waging war.

I wonder if the Warrior is still considered canon or not. I guess with Bethesda "major events" are whatever they choose. Also I LOVE the transition to Metalic Monks in your intro.

The armor looks straight of some old school comics I really love it

Just the fact that they look like some badass cyber wizard group straight out of an early 90s rpg magazine makes me like them more.

I find them the most logical depiction of the Brotherhood part saviors part tyrant and with still my favorite power armor

I hope the Brtoherhood from the TV Show is the Mid West, at least that would make sense to why they have so many soldiers and airships

This chapter of BoS seems chill enough to unionize with the enclave

They should just pick and choose all the good parts and make it all cannon lol 😂 it’s a really cool representation of the Brotherhood. I recently downloaded Titans of the New west for new Vegas and there is a midwestern bortherhood armor mod. Very cool looking. Good video! Thanks for sharing!

hey man what are those tracks you got running in the background the sound cool

is that chicago art with the john hancock concept art? i know some 70s architecture exists like the DC subway

“The Brotherhood is vastly outnumbered” Amazon: You sure about that?!

The biggest thing for me is, I want their power armor. I want a brotherhood faction that finally stops mindlessly hoarding their tech. I don't need every facet to be cannonized. bringing in intelligent Deathclaws is a bit beyond the pale, but intelligent super mutants and willing, non-feral ghouls should be welcome into the brotherhood, if only as a means to study and perhaps utilize their unique mutations. the only real story faction any of the 3d characters can join that accepts ghouls, let alone intelligent super mutants, is the Minutemen of F4. none of the railroad are, definitely not brotherhood, institute, ncr (what with the guy who wont go back after becoming a ghoul for one reason or another) or enclave, and I don't recall there being any in the legion (at least in game, been awhile though so not 100%). I can't say anything about the isometric games, I haven't played any of them personally and only know vague pieces in passing. The Idea that no primary faction, outside the original enclave with, I think Horrigan was the name, and technically the master, whose whole faction was the dumb super mutants basically, had any inclination to utilize these groups is getting unreasonable

Huh, this dystopian version of Chicago kind of sounds like modern day lol. Tactics and Vegas are still my two favorites

The armor these guys wear gives the X-02 armor a run for its money. It looks badass

I definitely think they should do a spinoff game in Chicago around the time of the current games where we can get a revision canonical story for tactics as I think it does add to the franchise in many positive ways. You can just remove small things such as the BoS controlling Colorado

Praying for Fallout 5 to finally introduce us truly to midwest Brotherhood.

i think what they should do is bump up the timeline and make it so that they were in the guerrilla warfare with the calculator when caesar attacked thats why they were driven out and with the newer game engines they could make a map realistically that big

Definitely one of the more detailed comprehensive accounts of midwest BoS. Some other lore videos next to this one look pretty scrappy, not altogether clear as this one anyway. I thought the power armour on the thumbnail was pure concept art, apparently not?? Where , how did they get power armour like that? Did they repurpose, modify the old pre war p.a . Had some super talented, creative Brotherhood blacksmith/armourer fashion that style of power armour to set themselves apart in aesthetic, for aesthetic and part ideological reasons? Also the renewed midwest Brotherhood went back to their old prejudices against supermutants, ghouls and any other mutations after the calculator and its army was knocked out for good yes?

I might be wrong (probably am) but I think somewhere in fallout NV it is heavily implied that the legion is fighting some kind of a midwestern chapter of the brotherhood or maybe it’s the capital wasteland chapter that expanded idk

how does the timeline look for tactics and NV? Cause it is possible that Tactics did happen before the rise of legion provided the brotherhood post Calculator war retreated back to chicago after looting the Vault.

There is a really good hearts of iron 4 mod old world blues that lets you play as this faction of brother hood way north of the ncr and god that campaign is fun to do. Their leaders and other key characters are neat and that power armor design gives the enclave a run for thier money

In my opinion thair power armor looks the best as well

I think the East Coast Brotherhood is alright as a splinter faction.

It's also a great faction in Fallout Sonora.

It’s good to see Chicago hasn’t changed in 200+ years hahaha

You got the backstory wrong. This is post-Fallout 1 Brotherhood effectively exiling the rogue element from their faction by telling them to go on goose chase after one group of remnants of the Master's super mutant army. Sometime after that BoS decided, after all, to become independent contractors for NCR to reintroduce technilogy into the wasteland if at a leisure rate and grew in power though stagnanted as an organization. When Enclave surfaced they were outgunned and out-tech'd, so once the Chosen One blew up the oil rig, they decided to covertly expand into the East, which became the Fo3 BoS. Meanwhile the original BoS ended up in conflict with the evergrowing NCR and basically got wiped after Helios One. I don't agree with the game being "egregious" or "limiting options (for future writers)" though. Fallout 3 eludes that the canonical ending of Tactics is the one where Calculator gets destroyed, which as stated by that ending of Tactics heavily limits their reach and strength. The last bunker (Delta, was it?) was quite literally a makeshift camp for staging operations in the Calculator's territory. Also the timeline, which goes back to you getting the backstory wrong. Tactics takes place soon after Fallout 1 (Fo1 ends in 2162 and Tactics takes place in 2197) over the course of a few years, which removes it from the next Fallout game (FO2 in this case) by about 40 years (which begins in 2241). This further makes a conflict with The Legion a complete non-issue, because Caesar isn't born until 2226. Plus the ending also states Midwestern BoS puts their mission of reuniting with Western BoS on hold indefinitely. And as a more recent news, the Fallout show puts Tactics back on the canon timeline though without specifics.

Tactics while being a flawed game o have a soft spot in my heart for it, like kinda like fallout 3

This kind of brotherhood is how i think all BoS should be, their original main goal is to "preserve/secure and retrieve an lost tech to prevent it from ppl to use it in the wrong way" but most of them just become a thing that they always hated, corrupted/racism/ view other as lesser being that get in their way, the abuse of power, they use a power in the name of brotherhood just to gain their personal interest like, obsess with tech/army/war machine etc. i think this is what a "real brotherhood" should be, regardless of different race, all can join the brotherhood, ghoul, Mutant, raider, or anything sapient creature that willing to do, all united together to achieve one goal.

Underated video

Never played 1,2 or tactics but this sounds similar to wasteland 3 and I love that game

Bro you fight in Quincy IL? I grew up not far from that city lol

I wish the mid west brotherhood would get some more representation instead of just being the forgotten black sheep that they are. Praise to fallout tactics getting some light shed on it and heres hoping we eventually get another game around them!

3:39 I want to know how a A6M Zero float plane survived WWII, the apocalypse, over a century with preservation, and still somehow managed to be fixed enough to fly

Your bringing up the factions in Kansas and Colorado and putting the legion in the mix. You gotta remember what years the tactics game and the new Vegas game takes place. Tactics is from 2198 and Vegas was 2281. In other words neither one of them would have met with the events of tatics.

I think a faction such as this could fit into canon if they were on a different continent

I really hope Bethesda does something in the Midwest. Tactics story has always been my favorite.

Yeah, Midwest BoS isn't canonic only because of Caesar's legion. Also I don't think that Chikago's BoS is awesome and should be idealized or marked as "good" BoS like vanilla F3 BoS. FT BoS is a group of BoS that have a mission (reach and obtain Vault-0 tech) and all their efforts are focused on that. Reasons: - Discrimination status. Of course they accept ghouls/int-deathclaws/super mutants into their ranks, but mostly in terms of their usefulness and the fact that the calculator intended to wipe all life forms. But all of BoS members don't like to take "bad" blood into their ranks - this attitude towards them may changed ONLY if you complete the game as a good guy (positive karma that can easy go to minus if you kill too much with your main character during the game) and as one of the generals (or as calculator) convince the rest of the BoS that non-humans aren't bad. - Main goal is the most important thing, and Midwest BoS use everything to reach it, including slavery (captured raiders transfer warhead from Kansas City to one of the BoS bunkers, of course they got lethal amount of radiation). Cruel post-apocalyptic world - there is some labor camps for captured raiders and reavers. - This is not a vanilla Bethesda's BoS that says: "Wanna join us? Go ahead, here is your PA and laser rifle!". This is a military faction and you should work crazy hard to prove that you deserve to wear PA. And if you betray BoS, you will be punished like those dudes in Cold Water.

this is a half-baked comment spurred by a tierd mind and a lack of food but... hear me out. Maby... just maby the legion is a faction of the brotherhood made up of the lower ranks that broke off in "civil war" of sorts? The desprate tribe that is mentioned by Cesar that he led into becoming the legion wasent so much as a tribe but a bunch of lower brotherhood members that broke off, because the similarities between the legion and the mid west brother hood is... odd to day the least and the jump from midieval toaster humpers that absorbed tribes and entire factions of people to a faction of over educated Roman cosplayers that do a "little bit" of slavery doesn't seem to me atleas, too big of a jump, and cesar mentioning them fighting the brotherhood may be a reference of the war of separation or maybe tying up some loose ends. I dunno, im just saying they have a lot of Similarities and they are from the same area.

Fallout tactics I missed that game there was a bug if your character held the bullhorn trap in your slots your skills were up over 10000 on everything but you had to take it off before u lvl otherwise it’s let’s say delete your characters life

I personally think it should be at least a little bit cannon considering it answers the question of what happened with vault zero, the truth is vault zero exists and is owned by the government in reality, in the story the government sold vault zero to vault tec so this real life Colorado vault is Cannon but without a story without fallout tactics!

I'm kinda glad tactics wasn't canon, still an interesting game

1:29 what map are you using here?

I believe Fallout Tactics is considered canon now

11:50 I’m confused why you brought up Cesar’s legion? They did not exist during the time of tactics, they where created in 2247. Tactics is 2197. It’s entirely possible they HAD Colorado and lost it?

what map did you use for 1:29 ? it looks pretty cool?

Why haven't we gotten a new tactics installment a la XCOM?

Brother, the Red Stingers are the Legion in Tactics, look at the outfit they wearing. Remember the Ceasers dialouge about Colorado??? look it upppppp. Might be a theory, buuut, look at ittttt. Plus, new vegas was made from old files for van braun and whatnot, remember what the Red Stinger act like

I like the idea of this game but I can't even best the first level sadly. I have no tactical ability for trying to control a squad.

I feel like if I was in this game I would be in what's left of the Midwest let's try to join the Brotherhood I would like to see the new games go back to this what's having super mutants machines ghoul part of the Brotherhood.