The wiki says that they were the Desert Rangers first, a sequestered group of survivors from before the Great War. Their heritage goes all the way back to the day of the Texas Rangers, and they retained small arms and things to aid in teaching young ones. They typically wore a trenchcoat and a gas mask, and tried to go out and make the world a better place.

The most prominent member is probably Tycho, from Fallout 2.

They were in a war with Caesar's Legion, and agreed to amalgamate into the NCR in 2271 for their aid in protecting the Mojave and Hoover Dam.

I guess that explains the Statues backbone at the Mojave Outpost.

I'd imagine their training, if they had any, would be similar to the Marine Corps' training.

No training. They're all using mods to get double XP and a perk every level. I think they grind mole rats until they hit 30.

Nah, They grind ROUS.

But seriously, If anything it'd be worse then what we would have today, I mean they DO have to survive the apocolypse.
So i'de compare it to older training/tests for the Navy or something.

Like I said in an earlier post, People who enlisted on a Submarine had to swim up 30 feet with their hands tied. (This came from my Grand-dad a few years back, He served for 15 years. )

Where's the in-game reference to the NCR Rangers originally being an 'anti-slavery movement'?

@Boradam: What are you talking about? My 2% figure is in reference to post-combat trauma, not actual combat behaviour (and most studies into combat behaviour are typically plagued with methodology problems).


I don't accept the 'Bitter Springs was an accident' line. There are just as many characters who say it wasn't, as there are who say it was. You also have one character who says that the Khans were allowed to 'settle' in another place (who coincidentally happens to be on a humanitarian mission at the time) and another one who wants to "...tie up loose ends...", who, coincidentally, has a reputation for brutality.

Desensitisation to combat and killing is in itself a psychological trauma, one which it takes a lot of effort to detoxify someone from. Some people never come back from that dark place, doesn't turn them psychopathic though, which I think we both agree on Giant.

Sorry, I thought what you brought up was a different statistic.

I misread it. :spotted owl:

True, but Bittersprings was First Recon not Rangers.

The Rangers are individuals, trained or requiring marksmanship, survival, and stealth, With minors in explosives, engineering and wasteland diplomacy.
They are given lee way to solve situations any way they choose, whether assassination, or taking control of a bad mess caused by regular troops and diffusing it the best way they can.
That is too say each is his own master, some like Col Moore are died blue NCR, others are quasi renegades seeking to do good for any that require it.

In FO2 Rangers were still not integrated into the NCR military. They were a well funded independent militant group whose sol purpose was to ruin the lives of slavers.

My earlier post likened them to einsatzgruppen or death squads, not saying they were operating in that manner...my point was that I consider them to be operating in a different moral or ethical framework to the standard NCR line troops.

Which Rangers are those from F2? The Nevada variety or the ones from the west? I'm always a bit dubious about 'canon', there's always confusion and differeing views on things from within the existing game, let alone from the earlier versions...wiki and it's ilk are not exactly the set-in-stone accurate sources we would like them to be...

However, I still haven't seen any evidence (and I'm open to some being shown to me) that the Rangers receive any special training, albiet they are equipped differently.

I guess Rangers are "better" than the standard NCR trooper, for whatever that's worth. Even with an 80% washout rate, I doubt most of the NCR troopers undergo serious training. Take a look at the Misfits, or even at how many troops were killed trying to kill the top Fiend leaders.

The Rangers, in my opinion, are more along the lines of overhyped scouts that are "better" than the poorly trained NCR troopers.

Apparently it involves chewing a lot of nails.

If you go to Ranger Station Charlie, before going to Novac, you can talk to a Comm Officer who says Rangers are experts troops who were taken from training because tehy were the top of there group and they receive s[pecial training and have a high wash out rate.

What Ranger training is. Or what they do other than do what the NCR says I dunno.

That's fair enough...

The term 'elite' is often simply a misnomer for dangerous or brutal, not necessarilly one and the same though...

I think their training is similar to what green barets of the American army go through.

They get picked from the NCR Army for being above average compared to others. Go through special training, and who ever survives has the opportunity to become a NCR Ranger. The NCR Rangers are the wolves while the NCR Army are the sheep.

I doubt they are trained to even close the level of real world special forces.

Fat camp.

I think they gave regular soldiers good gear and good weapons. That's all.