They're the only ones with their crap together. They're the only faction able to manufacture weapons and armor. Not even the BOS can do that. Even though the institute can produce weapons and synths there's no way they could hold their own against the NCR army (even without the Rangers) They have Ghouls Super Mutants and Humans, oh and the Gunrunners.

The only possible faction with the power to rival or surpass the NCR would be Ronto, however this is only speculated from the lines Ashur spouts in The Pitt that assume he is calling out each of the factions for what they are best known for in the Wasteland.

" Citizens of The Pitt, workers of Downtown, traders of Uptown, and all the fierce souls who do what must be done! I bring you good news! We stand at the dawn of a new golden age. Where others merely survive, we thrive! Our industry is the envy of the Commonwealth! Our safety is the envy of the Capital Wastes! Our might is the envy of Ronto!..."

For the NCR to beat the Institute, they'd have to find them first. The Institute, meanwhile, would just infiltrate the President's staff and Congress with Synths and bring the whole edifice crashing down....like they did with the Commonwealth of Allied Settlements.

There are no ghoul or super mutant synths, Lot's of Veteran Rangers are Ghouls so no it wouldn't work.

You presume to believe the Institute could not create Ghoul/Mutant Synths if it so chose.

The NCR's army are a joke, IMHO. Alright, the rangers are the best fighters in the wasteland (talk to Lanius, even him respect Chief Halon) and the 1st recon kickass, aside that, the rest are a bunch of noobs.

To be fair, that may be because the Brotherhood of Steel devastated them.

Still, they won Hoover Dam.

It's just their idiot current General kept all of the good troops at Hoover Dam.

The NCR bled itself white to hold the Colorado, thanks in part to a stupid "Mass Bodies" strategy. In a war of attrition between the NCR and the Institute...the Institute can afford to take a lot more losses.

I suppose that would depend on how much it costs them to build a Synth and what the turn around time is.

By the time NCR reaches the Institute they will be the US again.

For a third gen? About sixty seconds. You get to witness the process when you get to the Institute. It's fascinating and horrifying at the same time. Victor Frankenstein has nothing on these guys.

Ol' democracy always finds a way.

700,000+ people and more resources and territory under their control than any Eastern faction has ever seen does make the NCR by far the conventionally strongest faction in the Fallout universe. Realistically they would also be able to quickly technologically compete with most everyone they're matched up against but developers do things the way they want them.

Although for the record the Brotherhood in particular, and many other factions in general, have always been able to manufacture weapons and armor. It's just that none of them have anywhere near the NCR's industrial capacity.

Those 700,000+ people found themselves at the breaking point just hanging on to the Colorado River. There's little chance they'll extend farther for the foreseeable future.

Sometimes I just hang around in the robotics lab watching the process at work.

It horrifies me, but its like watching a car crash in that you can't look away.

Edit: And yeah it takes about 2 minutes to create a fully formed synth. Which means that in a little over a half hour to an hour the Institute can create a full platoon of soldiers.

Extra creepy sauce comes from talking to the Synths as they get out of the Nutrient Bath.

"Hello. I am...new...here."

Was a canon ending decided for New Vegas?

Caraveners from NCR mention it.

I really wanted House to win.

The NCR is strong, though I do not see how they're the strongest faction in the Fallout universe. They need to strengthen those roots before they expand anymore, hell Legion was giving them massive amounts of trouble because they're stretched too thin. If NCR went back to the Tandi monarchy democracy they'd make slow but steady progress.

Not to mention we know close to nothing about Ronto (Though I've read they are at war with Aliens or something which says a lot about their strength).

I would say the NCR is one of the biggest factions in the west next to Legion, but being the strongest? Not yet.

Also, I don't see how the hell The Institue and NCR would ever meet. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Map_of_USA_showing_state_names.png.

If you complete the BoS quest, Elder McNamara comes to the realization that the NCR isn't half as powerful as he thought it was.

House winning is kind of just status quo in the Mojave.

So I understand why they did it.

Albeit, that's because General Oliver is George Patton minus everything which made George Patton awesome.

If Hsu, Moore, or Hanlon was involved then the BOS would be [censored]

Ditto Caesar's Legion.

That's only due to the mojave being frontier territory for them the NCR itself is much stronger and more advanced.

I just want to point that Charlemagne (to my knowledge) is the only one who's seen these elusive caravaneers.

Not saying I don't believe him, he certainly has no reason to lie, but to be safe I'd wait until at least a few more people are able to confirm what the Caravaneers say exactly before we go around saying that the New Vegas ending has been confirmed. For my part I've been trying to track down the dialogue myself but haven't come up with anything.

Certainly we'll know once the GECK comes out and we can root through dialogue.

I actually heard the caraveners due to checking out the dialogue from another poster.

I don't normally listen to them.

It's also up on TVtropes.org.

I'm sure the GECK will confirm it when the codes checked out. But yes, I'm trying to get the dialogue myself again but no one is repeating it yet.