Reloading the game, I buck up my spirit and roll out into the western wastes of Vegas. The walk ahead is quite a long one so I sip my coffee and watch as the scenery plays out around me.

I come across a location or two, but one location in particular makes me stop, and think. The Poseidon gas station. An ordinary, run down, boarded up building, a little radioactive but otherwise very ordinary. Its northern perimeter edged by mountains and its south western facing looks over a makeshift fort... The locale is littered with fiends, I've already snuck my way past one group, killed a lone straggler, but this fort is home to Violet and her dogs.

Dogs aren't a problem as long as there isn't too many of them in the pack. Fiends aren't a problem, just punch them a few times and they die. Violet combined with dogs is a big problem. I begin by sneaking as far away from the encampment as I can feasibly do so. I guess the dogs 'see' me because all too quickly there are 3 of them running right at me. One of them being Violetta. A named dog character that could be an issue.

"I intend to live forever, or die trying."
- Groucho Marx

Violent vengeance on Violet

I'd rather not go back over the sadness of the previous session, but this next session didn't exactly go well either...

Once more I try to progress the main storyline, so I return to The Fort, job over to the bunker and dive in. The radiation in the bunker is only mildly annoying, what's more annoying is that I have neither the Science skill for the computer terminals nor the Lockpick skill for several lockers.
Undeterred I keep going deeper into the bunker.

Where we're going you won't need guns...

Nope, Nope, Nope... 

Terrible pun to start this one with! but accurate, I've tried to finish (and I mean finish.. not just walk about the wastes for hours thinking about doing things)

*ahem* as I was saying.. tried to finish several of the myriad of quests I've opened. And I had a plan!

Beat people senseless!

I am on fire!

Check out these stats!

I'm pretty sure it's at this point I've failed in my challenge ...

Let's wrap this one up

A map of my journey in this session:

The end of session stats

After Wandering about Vegas, I decide to enter the 'side-quest for experience' side of life, and head on over to the brotherhood, they're quite good for some simple quest lines that are moderately quick to do.

Now, when I say moderately quick, I overstate that would be for a normal character... after only the very easiest parts (the situation in Hidden Valley etc) I realise that my character is very much incapable of anything else.

I go hunting for the lost Paladins, one set is easy to find, and only made 'dangerous' by some Centaurs, which can easily be killed...

... by anyone with a gun! For me however, it was quite some struggle, and a struggle I almost lost!

Video Time :D

What a conundrum

Vegas has proven to be quite profitable for my experience points... I've opened up several questlines like Gomorrah etc but more importantly...

Benny Vidi Vici

This was a fun part, dealing with Benny, but in a way I've never done before. Part of my character build is the perk 'Black Widow' which opens up some fun dialogue...

Platinum chip status: Acquired!

This small act plus a dribble of XP that comes from the aftermath with Mr House & Legion Camp travels from the last session means one thing, Level 12

I wrap up some small quest joiners and call it a day. Not a long one this time about, but certainly a lot of story line aspects coming together.

Character Detail:
Level 12
Unarmed Skill 65
Combat Armour Mk2, Combat Helmet Mk2 (reinforced)

I actually purchased some armour! - worth noting that I'm quite rich in caps now... the constant sale of ammo which I'll never need is a great revenue source.

The title for this post is pretty indicative of what is about to follow.

after my last session I've put my tail firmly between my legs and rather than trying to take on anything that moves, I've become 'the thing that moves'

... and when I say 'moves' I mean walks the entire length of the Mojave,end to end... several times. My first port of call is Boulder City, to 'revisit' my forgotten storyline elements that in turn lead me to go to Vegas.

No, it's equal opportunities in Vegas. Here, even grannies can be hoodlums! No, seriously ... I was attacked by grannies.

Ever wondered what it's like to wander?

Wait ... you had Cass helping? surely that voids the challenge?!

I earned this perks just after my Level 10 advancement.

From the wiki:

To complete this challenge, the player must inflict 10,000 damage with unarmed weapons.

Effects:
Beautiful Beatdown reduces the Action Points cost for unarmed attacks by 10%.

Rather anticlimactically my X session was nothing more than a brief journey further around the outskirts of Vegas and a journey back to Goodsprings.

I got attacked by a new human opponent for my troubles, a lone member of the Scorpion Gang armed with a knife. This once again proves to me that anyone with a combat weapon is harder to kill then if they had a machine gun...

The blocking is really annoying, nearly every punch I throw in 'real time' is blocked. Only in VATS do I get to actually cause any damage against these opponents.

Sadly I dont have time today to really get into things, I wanted to finish Goodsprings, but real life has to come first, and I'm off to take care of that!

First stop, Goodsprings

To Primm my good man, and don't spare the brahmin!

I miss Vegas, can we go back please?

Ugly is the new grey.

By the power of Fast-travel, make it so!

How to not succeed, at anything...

ALL THE MEDS EVER

Firstly, I love the Princess Bride movie. It is an all time classic and thoroughly enjoyable, why not watch it after reading this blog?

This went exactly as well as it should have.

I end the session by quickly ( and I do mean quickly) grabbing the bits from the lost caravan, exiting and running away... I wrap up several mission points and snatch another level from the Jaws of character advancement.

It has come to a point where I really need to make some advancement, I have several quests near completion and my progress toward some of my goals is really slow. So, for this session I decide that caution and care need not apply.

I've waited too long. I head toward Vegas. This isn't to say that I take a direct route to Vegas, but in my own meandering way I progress until I've not only found the entrance to Freeside, but done a pretty solid loop around the outside of Vegas itself. The aim of which is simply experience whoring from location discovery.

Wait... what's that?

The journey so far.

Logistics of fist-fighting

And here's what you could have won.

After my previous session I started a crusade against the wastes, I needed experience points, and no simple wasteland is going to hold me back!
It's a nice thought, but in honesty this is one of those times where I'm using my meta-game knowledge to help overcome some of my self imposed limitation. If I had guns, grenades and lasers I'd probably be in Vegas already at this stage of the game.
Instead I'm deliberately pausing my advancement to eke out any experience I can. So, for this session I begin with a revisit to Nipton...

Hello old friend

I can honestly say that having two crippled legs and being overburdened is one of the most painfully slow means of travel.
I dumped some of the loot, swig back a beer and head off to Goodsprings to see the doc.
And while in Goodsprings I initiate the side quest there. Again I'll stress that right now I simply want to level up, I need the skill points...

Levelling up

A job well done

This isn't an update proper, but I thought I'd share this little screencap I took while I was doodling around the North Vegas area.

What's next then?

Well, this session left me confused, annoyed and a little unsure of the task at hand.

Firstly, I found that even super mutants can be punched to death given that I used MANY stimpacks, med-x and psycho, I was even able to defeat the 'jailer' by using my last Turbo.

I've taken a video of a lot of my journey, but as I came to wrap up I've cut the end.

Why? I hear you ask, well it seems I was doomed to fail the quest and at no fault of my own. There are potential spoilers here but I shall instead resort to a brief run-down:

The crappy game engine fails to properly 'check' certain things, and one of those things is important, In the current quest there is a Super Mutant by the name of Davison. Like most Super Mutants, he's big, a little dumb, very tough and more importantly, Davison hits like a train.

Here's where it gets bugged, the game checks a certain thing, then, if that check fails the game orders Davison to smash the players face in. Which ... is exactly what happened to me.

However the check that occurs is bugged, I've had to add ANOTHER player made bug correction mod specific to this issue. To this end, I'm unsure if I should count this toward my 'death tally'. For sake of accuracy I shall (at least for now) include this death. It may be unfair, but it did happen.

Video goodness ahoy!

Repconn Cleanup

After the crash previously, I revisited the Mojave Outpost then zipped about a bit, including a revisit to the Bison Steve Hotel in Primm for a couple of rounds with the convicts there. Soon enough i found myself in the downward spiral of looting everything that wasn't moving, with a sudden realisation that I should actually try and get back to the storyline and stop procrastinating in the wasteland.

Fun Fact

Back on track

Enjoy the show:

Not a lot to report, from Novac I went over to the Repconn building, the ghouls outside posed no threat, having already encountered a ghoul previously I happily waded into them fists flying and took next to no damage in the brief fight they put up.

I scooped all the little bits of loot from the external area, and fast-travelled to the Mojave Outpost to have a good old market day - selling my wares and begging for Med-X supplies.

Sadly, the game crashed on me at this point, and it's already quite late, so I decided to call it a night. Repconn can wait.. I know what's lurking beneath that pre-war tech building and I can't say I'm as eager to fight them as I was to fight the feral ghouls...

We'll see what happens next time eh ?

Not a lot to report after the rather extended 2nd session this was more about making geographical progress than anything else, I skirt around the ambush where I'd previously left off and make my way to Wolfhorn Ranch, using this as a bus point I quickly do some fast travel to Goodsprings and a handful of other previously visited 'safe' locations to rally around for any possible easy experience, a few gecko's taste the might of my fists, another radscorpion and my first ghoul... the poor deformed chap took umbrage at me passing a little too closely and decided to try it on.

Turns out ghoul flesh is pretty easy to pound into the Mojave dirt...

So, with my exploratory vacation done, I zip back to Wolfhorn and start up the long road toward Novac. Almost immediately I bump into some traders and happily trade away the ammo I'm carrying for extra stims, oddly it seems they too are travelling the Novac road which turns out to be a bit of a gift to me.

Ceasar Salad

Just passing through, pay no attention to me...

I spotted in the distance the somewhat reassuring sight of one of the many Ranger stations that dot the wasteland and happily begin trotting in a direct line toward it. Oblivious that I was walking all too closely to a Jackal Gang camp-site. Too late I notice my pip-boy ping the red indicators of trouble, and the bullets start flying at me... and lots of them too.

I gauge that there must be at least two automatic weapons, and possibly a half dozen guys. I'm not proud of what happened next, but in the interest of self preservation. I ran.

Toward the Ranger station, Rangers are supposed to protect people right? I'm a people... they'll protect me. These are the thoughts that are jogging through my brain as I realise that the gangers are actually catching up with me, which is mildly concerning as the Ranger station is still a little way off.

At this exact moment in time, my brain says, 'Oh well, I guess I'm done for' in preparation for my
imminent and possibly rather messy demise.

This coincides perfectly, almost to the nano-second with what must be a pure chance occurrence, but one I'm grateful for. Bullets start to ring out, and not the 'incoming' kind, no... this was other bullets, ones headed in the direction of the Jackal gangers,

I know this as having turned about to face my doom, instead of multiple face-bullet combinations i was expecting there is a lone Jackal ganger running at me with a club, and some way behind him, all of his pals are now doing their best impressions of something akin to a fairground target game, one by one being plinked to the ground by a tirade of gunfire from a cliff I was passing under.

Mr bat-man and I have a short tussle, he's surprising adept at blocking my attacks but none the less I eventually put him down. I walk back to the other gangers now all very dead and look up the cliff to see some more Legionaries, one of them appearing wounded, but both wandering off back over the cliff ridge line.

Once more I'm surrounded by a sea of lootable things, and it's only fair I take all their stuff... they were about to kill me.

Shhh

What was supposed to be a walk along a road, turned into multiple blood baths, but now, finally as I pass the Ranger station it all calms down. I make it to Novac and undertake the required storyline stuff which opens the new story arc regarding Repconn, I rally round selling all my hard won looted items and end the session bemused but unscathed from my travels.

This session found me firstly wandering aimlessly about the safer area's of Primm, I was all too well aware of the armed Powder Gangers that were to be found, and I was still unsure of my ability to handle multiple armed opponents.

Eventually I gave in to my want to make progress and all but stormed into the Byson Steve Hotel, guns or no guns I began injecting super stimpacks (of which I had only a handful) but other than the 'leader' that was to be found they went down with only minimal fuss.

The leader was regenerating his HP as fast as I could throw punches, and only critical hit's appeared to cause him to suffer. I had killed off the half dozen normal gangers each taking about a dozen punches, and I was able to retreat and heal up . but this guy was eating fists like popcorn.

I decided it was best to make this my first 'make or break' fight. So rather than retreating I continued to pummel his silly face until he finally croaked, but it was close. The fight ended with me retreating all the way back to Goodsprings to be healed by the doctor.

It was tough, but I had mostly secured Primm, after getting the story elements done, my next target was Nipton. I knew that this next part was hard and so decided it would be best to do the journey in two parts, firstly the the Mojave Outpost, and then after bartering for some more health supplies on to Nipton.

The journey, did not go well.

I ram some food into my face and stimpacks - but having taken a few shots from the Powder Gangers, I'm starting this fight at a little over half my total hitpoints. and the Jackals hurt ... a lot.

Reload!

My journey toward the Mojave outpost was not yet done, and I had not even yet found my worst adversary. The Jackal Gang leader was a puppet, a toy, something to be amused by when compared to the 4 Radscorpions I encounter at the Nipton Road Reststop.

I punch one ... and realise it takes no damage. I retreat noting that the others are approaching, punch it again, and still it takes next to no damage, now with 4 of them at my feet... I run.

As the game (rightly) disallows fast-travel while in combat, this find me running all the way up I 15 back to Primm before all but one of them has finally given up chasing me. And now, faced with only one radscorpion, I decide to test their defence capability.

We engage in a sort of hockey-pokey .. in-out.. combat; move in swing a punch, back away

repeat this for some considerable time and I've concluded I can kill a single Radscorpion, but it's costly in terms of my now very diminished health restoration supplies.

Thankfully with me scooping every last bit of loot from corpses, and gathering junk on my travels after yet another visit to the doc in Goodsprings I sell what I can to get more supplies, then, knowing that I cannot fight through to the Mojeve Outpost I fast travel to the Reststop and run.

 Very fast... up the hill to safety with Radscorpions nipping at my heels, I'me saved half way up by an approaching merchant who, unlike my character has a gun, and will use it. More supplies gathered, I head out on my final leg of this journey. To Nipton.

Oh, no... not you guys.

Although I'd set out to use my meta game knowledge to help me decide how best to get through things, I'd all but forgotten about what essentially is an ambush at the Nipton Road Pitstop, even getting to it meant more running around and hiding while I avoid trying to fight some Giant Ants.

After evading the Ants I arrive at the Pit Stop only to have a very sudden and rude realisation I'd forgotten... this place is also a hangout for Jackal Gangers! What happens next is a stroke of genius.

With the Jackal Gangers heavily outnumbering poor old me, I need some backup. I have the gangers chase me back toward the Giant Ants! Much to my relief the Ants are hostile to everything, and soon in a rather messy melee with me popping right hooks at weaker Jackal members the Ants kill the leader and severely wound several others, I finish off a few wounded gangers and also take this chance to take out several ants that the gangers had started shooting.

"The battlefield is a scene of constant chaos. The winner will be the one who controls that chaos, both his own and the enemies."
-Napoleon Bonaparte

The last part is uneventful, after running from the remaining handful of Giant Ants, I arrive at Nipton, gather the appropriate storyline detail chat with some friendly Roman looking dudes who were having a party in the town, I clean around a bit for trade salvage and head out.

I end the session taking steps to avoid another ambush (one I remembered!) and taking to the hills in the southern area.

Character Detail:
Level 3
Unarmed Skill 44
Metal Armour & Cowboy Hat