Geez. I get attacked by these guy when I move anywhere. I was level 7 when they first death squad came and they had a Thermic lance at level 7!

They don't random spawn either, because I have had multiple party wipes (me ED-e and Boone) to get into a new area. They always show up when I try to move into any new area.

Now I am nearly out of Ammo (they need a couple of clips to go down, even on easy).

I have fond memories of the Talon mercs that showed up in FO:3 to sacrifice themselves and offer up their weapons, these guys just brutalize me to the point of making the game nearly unplayable.

I am playing with YUP patch. I wonder if that "fixed" something that makes them even more brutal or spawn everywhere.

You're not supposed to provoke any of the factions until pretty late in the game where you decide which you're going to wipe out. The Legion assassins will be coming after you every 3 in-game days, they're unavoidable. However, once you reach the Strip and deal with Benny you'll be given a chance to wipe the slate clean with both Legion and NCR. Just don't go randomly killing people anymore, there are consequences for it in this game.

I ran into the same issue as you did with the assassins always coming after me. I think I got on their bad side after wiping their group out at Nipton as the character I was playing felt that was completely wrong what they did.

In my game though I never did any Fast Traveling unless I used my APC (from a mod), and then it was only if I was planning on being in the area for a while so I had a base of operations to work from. You can sometimes spot the legion coming after you from a distance if you don't Fast Travel, which will give you time to setup a few mines, and ambush them.

Exactly. I didn't consider putting down a group of murdering psychos to be "randomly killing people".

Plus in my game IIRC when I tried to approach them, they murdered me, so when I went back after a save, I sniped most of them.

So I bet this is a common occurrence. Even knowing what I know now, I would do the same to the murdering psychos.

So the problem remains what to do about the constant hit squads. I had to turn down difficulty to deal with them, and even on Easy at 14 level with the Gobi Sniper they take a few shots each to go down, and do a lot of damage in the interim.

They really piss me off since I am playing a stealthy sniper often traveling hidden and they always just show up and make a bee line, and pummel me with grenades and high powered weapons, while been tough as hell to kill. Though I am starting to appreciate the weapon donations when I survive.

IMO they are poorly done, out of the difficulty curve of the rest of the game.

I had the same experience after Nipton, but you can power through that. The first encounter is the most difficult one, but it can be done with a cowboy repeater and a 357 single action colt. The legion assassins will likely drop a better lever action rifle, which will then make future encounters much easier.

Agreed, though I think I had more of an issue with Talon Squad from F3, and the Hitmen from F4 were incredibly annoying since they always showed up in Diamond City after I left Home Plate.

If you're not oppsed to a mod, this may help until you get to that part with Benny at the casino. There are different options for different number of days before you encounter them again.

https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/45303

I never did finish this game. I retired my character after losing an that former caravan owner NPC to that area with the the excavator equipment and all the deathclaws. Was waiting until a lot of the little details to the game were forgotten before I played again, so it kinda feels like a new game again.

Get Boone and ED-E as companions. They will wipe out the Assassins, and pretty much anything else too.
You can also use them to tank the enemies and then fire into the crowd with a missile launcher or grenades.

Also don't let anyone tell you what you are "supposed" to do in an RPG.. I just annihilate any groups of Legion I come across, fuck them.

Says who? I have had NCR quests to help rescue/liberate from Legion/Khans, these no doubt give you negative rep with the khans/Legion (I am vilified by both). It looks like lots of quests force you choose one side to support and you gain fame with them with detriments on the other side. Also keep in mind that Boone is one of the main companions that first time players tend to use early on, and he is instant hostile with the Legion.

So I don't think there is anything even slightly wrong with putting legion dogs down. It was probably expected that a large number of players would go this way.

Running around on eggshells trying to not piss off any faction sounds more like meta-gaming to me. I don't care if it closes any quests, I am not going to work with the Legion, because I wouldn't work with the legion. They are psycho murderers.

I have no problem with the idea of the assassins they send, just that they are scaled poorly. They are supposed to scale to your level according to the wiki, but it is clearly broken. Thermic Lance at level 7?

Compare to one quest to help big NCR team clear out Nelson of Legion troops. I went in alone first and cleaned them easy-peasy. Clearly a balance issue if I clear a town of Legion troops by myself when the game gives you a small army to help, but a repeating 4 man squad is the toughest thing in the game so far, by a lot.

Anyway, I went off on a caravan ride (honest hearts) for what should be some legion free adventuring.

Just to give you an example since you brought up the Great Khans. I assume you're talking about the quest at the Boulder City. You can easily defuse the situation by passing a speech check. Later on you will get access to the Great Khans camp and will be able to do their quest line and eventually make them ally with the NCR if you wish. That is, as long as you didn't kill them at the Boulder City. There's no way to get their trust back. Which is exactly my point, you should always try exploring your options before shooting people. It's a role-playing game.

And you just gave an example of more meta-gaming. Don't anger the Khans, because at some point in the future, you could resolve this certain quest differently if they were your buddies...

It also depends on your build. I have a 1 charisma, with most initial skill points into guns/stealth/lockpick/science.

I am an infiltrator/assassin, not a talkie, resolve this with our words, character.

Maybe in a different play-though I will play the talkie peace maker, that tries to get everyone to hold hands and sing kumbaya.

This is my first play and I am reacting to the world as a I see it. Psychos that murder/crucify whole settlements need putting down, not pleasant chats.

Why would you not invest into Speech? It's independent of your Charisma. A lot of quest rewards are gated behind speech checks, you're just gimping yourself for no reason.

I am putting points into speech, but since the main stat is Charisma, it started very low and hasn't been my priority over stealth/guns/locks.

At boulder city the options were Sneak in and release hostages or negotiate. Being a stealthy character, the sneak option made most sense from a character perspective.

I managed to sneak free them without any bloodshed, but then to finish the quest the only option was to mop them up...

Your way, is not the only way to play.

Yeah, I'm just saying. Provided your IN stat is not too low you should have enough points to max out most skills by the end of the game, so there's no reason to skip on Speech. And practically everyone plays with CH1 anyway, as it's almost completely useless in New Vegas.

Early on, it was lagging, and I really pushed guns/stealth/locks. I hate it when I can't open a container. In classic fantasy RPGs I nearly always play a rogue. So stealth and locks are kind of my thing. Though even with 100 stealth, I seem to be spotted way too soon. I guess I need stealthboy to really be full stealth. Which kind of makes stealth skill less useful than I thought it would be. If I do another play, I would probably only get enough stealth to qualify for perks, if stealth really doesn't work that well without a stealth boy and works really well with it.

But sure after "Honest Hearts" I am level 20 and my Speech skill is getting up there now, eventually I will probably push it right to 100. Repair I might just leave at 50 where it is now and build "Weapon repair kits", rather than pump it up and go for Jury Rigging. I am starting to wonder if I might even increase other lower skills like medicine or maybe even another weapon skill now that Stealth/Guns/Locks are 100.