Red Legion – Murkwater / Hangman Campaign

Murkwater / Hangman Campaign

Spanning levels 60-70, this campaign was the cumulation of my RP, empire building, and gameplay experience. It would see a slow slog through dwindling supplies (I still refused to buy shipments until I’d taken Hangman) and several complications, not the least being realizing I’d bit off more than I could chew building so many settlements.

The initial phase was rather arduous and boring (fitting, given the environment, I suppose). The Legion took Murkwater, built an artillery base which proved useless except for bombarding Quincy, and pushed west toward Somerville Place. This was a dreadful period of endless Vertibird flights between various locations, struggling to keep two suits of Power Armor operational and still have enough supplies to build settlements.

More than once I had my leg segments shot off and had to slog through the damned marshes to get supplies to a drop point because I ran out of vertibird flares (I started carrying less due to their weight). More annoyingly, the game’s difficulty hiked as I was operating well south of Boston, and the campaign stalled for an entire real life day as I tried to get everything back on track by flying north into the starting areas, scrapping unused or exterminated settlements and hoarding pipe weapons for copper. But eventually the Legion got its shit together and established…

FOB Sommerville

A small yet vital military post with integrated communal farm, FOB Somerville secured the Legion’s southern front, establishing both a combat capable outpost and vital caravan link. Due to its dangerous location and unstable supply route, Sommerville remains a primarily military outpost, used as a base of operations for scavenger teams headed into the Glowing Sea or nearby Vault 95.

Interior of FOB Sommerville

Though visually unimpressive, the FOB did prove useful in hitting Vault 95 (a source of many supplies) and with Murkwater being able to hit Concord to farm Combat Armor I finally got things under control. I was starting to fret IRL, afraid I’d have to break my no-shipments rule just to keep playing. Castle City had already drained most of what I had in way of raw materials. And I needed to get Hangman before I capitulated to gameplay needs. But completing Sommerville changed my opinion. I was close. So close. I could do the rest by taking…

Firebase Egert

Originally established as an artillery firebase to support the Legion’s assault on Hangman’s Alley, Firebase Egert’s original defensive line and hastily repaired structures slowly but steadily evolved into a major radio relay station under the direction of Communicat Piper. In addition to providing fire support on the southern outskirts of Boston, FOB Egert is home to the Combureau, the official voice of Communes and Red Legion. From their headquarters overlooking the old Egert Pier, the Combureau monitors airwave transmission and broadcasts Legion propaganda across the Commonwealth.

Artillery Pier at Egert

Due to the large volume of sensitive information processed at Egert, the walled-off Legion base is off limits to outsiders and watched over by several tiers of defense guns. The local garrison frequently uses these for sport, firing at wildlife grazing nearby for sheer amusement, an ironic fact which has not escaped the technicians who broadcast messages of peace, community, and tolerance from their raised perch – often to the sound of muted gunfire, a detail which many listeners apparently believe is an intentional part of Combureau broadcasts.

Piper rehearsing in the Combureau Studio

Story-wise, there’s little to say for Egert. I always envisioned it as the final firebase before I hit hangman but, as I was building up the strcutures, I realized AI pathing was giving me nightmares. One thing led to another and I ended up with a floating bridge behind what is now the radio broadcast room. I always wanted to do an ironic take on the politbureau of the former USSR, and decided it’d have to involve Piper. But that was an afterthought; Egert was all about building.

Suffice to say, Egert was a constructational experience what with guard posts up top, behind the radio shack, and a ruined house that needed precise fixing. After much fiddling, the AI correctly walks up to theguard posts and back down to the ones by the gate. I learned a lot about building hanging structures, which had become my major focus as I knew I was about to take Hangman and have to cram a shit ton into virtually no space.

Outpost Hangman

Claimed during the final phase of the Red Legion’s march on Boston, Outpost Hangman had already been secured by Railroad agents operating in the area when the Legion arrived. Resources were pooled, the Railroad providing Legion agents with clandestine access to Diamond City, and the cramped back alley soon transformed into a fortified outpost. The Railroad agents now masquerade as visitors to the local Caravan Lounge, which is run and subsidized by the Razorgrain Communes.

Main entrance to Hangman’s Alley

Rear entrance to Hangman’s Alley

Today, mere weeks after the initial assault, Hangman boasts a pleasant lounge and operates a small but notable trade center behind its heavily defended entryways. A raised artillery platform, kept strictly off limits to wastelanders by Legion soldiers, provides fire support inside downtown Boston. The presence of a heavily militarized outpost so close to Diamond city has not gone unnoticed by the locals yet, in the presence of the Legion’s technological and material might, there has been little resistance.

Outpost Hangman Ops Center

Hoping to build positive relations with the Legion and deter an attack on the nearby baseball stadium, traders from Diamond City have set up shop at the heard of Hangman’s Alley. Above their heads, Legion guards keep a watchful eye on the goings on of this small yet notable outpost next door to what some call the Crown Jewl of the Commonwealth.

Trade Alley and interior Guard Post at Hangman

The Caravan Lounge beside the Alley is believed by some to be run – and financed by – agents of the Railroad. Though this is deemed unlikely by most – the Legion professes no such allegiance and shares no common goal – there can be no certainty until the claims have been investigated, a task that Diamond City has considered delegating to their resident Private Eye.

Caravan Lounge by the front entrance

By the time I took Hangman all I wanted to do was build my final settlement, invent a last bit of lore, and call it quits. That took about two days to do but I finally got the damned thing down. And I’m happy it’s done. Trying to build a functional, AI pathable settlement in that place is a freaking NIGHTMARE. No ammount of practice or experience prepared me for this mess. Much like the Castle, there are two foundations here: the concrete blocks below the bar, which are wedged in diagonally beside the main Outbost building (there are two guard posts on the roof) and the Railroad safehouse beside it (that stupid hut you can’t scrap).

Floatingly attached to the Outpost is the trade alley (built from the top down; I swear, how counter-intuitive is that?!) which is floored over from end to end so NPCs can walk over it and houses the major shops in the alley. On the far end (behind the interior guard post; bends around toward the rear entrance) is a second, two-story housing block with a bunch of beds.

I’ve tested it backwards and forwards and, as far as I can tell, the AI can walk around the whole freaking area freely. It’s also reasonably defensible, with gun turrets pointed at all the major entry areas, and enough armed patrols inside to prevent glitched spawns from wreaking havoc (someone will draw aggro if they get inside). But, man, did this take a long time to build. Even the Castle wasn’t that bad.

Closing Words

I could probably go on playing this build and headcanon for a while yet because it was fun in ways that are hard to describe. All sorts of things just, well, happened. And pulled my emotions all over the place. The whole Legion RP idea was an accident caused by a random Raider attack. My character becoming a communist was sheer happenstance, as was the plan of growing an empire ‘from the east’. Hell, even romancing McCready – which I didn’t relate here – was an accident. Nothing, not even the four characters I’d played before this, prepared me for the immersion and story that evolved solely because of flukes in an RNG.

Say what you want about the game’s mechanics or story, Fallout 4 offers a tremendous amount of freedom and a great system to ‘just make shit happen’. I’d go as far as to say it’s the best game I’ve played in regards to free-form roleplaying. And it wasn’t all according to my plan, that’s the best part. I’d set up a goal and get attacked out of the blue or waylaid by constant resource shortages. Sure, I eventually got back on track, but none of that was scripted. I didn’t expect it to happen. It just did and it played beautifully into this experience.

But now I’m done, at least for the moment. After six real life days spent in-game almost end to end, I’ve had my fill. Time to get back to work, armed with a number of ideas inspired by this little adventure. So let me end by simply saying: this entire playthrough, from the initial concept to what it became, was a remarkable experience.