Camp Forlorn Hope

 is the NCR's primary forward camp in the eastern Mojave Wasteland.

Layout
Camp Forlorn Hope has tents, shacks, and abandoned truck hulls scattered throughout, and is divided by a freshwater creek running through the middle. The camp is destitute and generally lacks items for looting, although forlorn hope letters written by soldiers can be found all over the camp. Entering from the North, the first place of note is the medical center. Dr. Richards is usually located here. On the path to the right is a shack, and across is the Camp Forlorn Hope Jail, with a lone NCR trooper and a jail cell. Further south is the barracks where Private Stone usually hangs out. Just south of the barracks across the creek is the Mess Hall. There is a Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle cap next to an empty Sunset Sarsaparilla bottle on the table directly in front of you when you enter. There's a little bit of food in the kitchen area, as well as a strange meat pie hidden in the oven. Down the path to the right of the mess hall is a campfire at the end of a long row of tents. To the north of the campfire is the Quartermaster's Tent, with a storage shed with a very hard lock across from it. North of that across the bridge is the Command Center. Major Polatli is here along with Tech Sergeant Reyes. A Big Book of Science is on one of the desks inside.

Walkthrough
If you are enemies with the NCR:

I suggest to approach the camp from the northwest; fast travel to El Dorado Gas & Service and head directly southeast. There is a nook in the rock which you can jump up and over (press spacebar several times), right when you see the Ranger station on the northwest side of the camp. As soon as you jump through that nook, the Ranger in the tower will see you, but trust me this is the easiest way. I highly suggest to have powerful armor on, with a DT of at least 20, preferably 25. I also highly suggest to use the sniper rifle to take out the ranger, and have stimpacks or super stimpacks on hand, as well as a doctor's bag, or several of them.

The Ranger shoots at your head, so make sure your head is healed (doctor's bag does this), and if possible try to have a helmet of at least 5 DT. The best way to take out a Ranger (if we're talking about only one Ranger, as is this case), is to pull out your sniper rifle with Hollow-Point bullets (press the number "2" on your keyboard to switch between types of ammo - in the bottom right of your screen it will say nothing for regular bullets (-15DT), AP for Armor Piercing (-15DT, x0.95), and HP for Hollow Point (x3DT) (I use the .308 Sniper Rifle, but the Anti-material rifle is more powerful but also heavier).

Once you have your sniper ready, make a beeline for the Ranger and shoot him in the head as many times as you can manage, to blow his head off. I highly suggest to hit him only in the head, because you will be in for a nice surprise if his armor is undamaged - Rangers wear NCR Combat Armor which is worth ~3,000 caps and weighs 30 lbs. If you keep shooting him in the body to kill him, then his armor will end up only being worth about 500 caps, but that's still decent.

There are a total of three or four Rangers in the camp. There is one Ranger per tower.

After taking the first tower, the camp is directly down the southeast side of the mountain from that first Ranger tower. I highly suggest to get a nice position there, undetected, and scope out the camp. There are two heavy troopers with sniper rifles and heavy (valuable) armor. I suggest to wait for the heavy troopers to come into sight; a single bullet in a nearby NCR Trooper will definitely get their attention, but if you're good, they'll only run around for the first couple seconds without seeing you. During these seconds of stealth, if you're good you can either take one of them out right away (numerous hollow point bullets), or give them both a good amount of damage. If you're good, you should be able to take them both out before they get up the mountain to you. Again, the Heavy Troopers' armor is very valuable if you only hit their head, but less valuable if you hit their armor. You need to be a good shot. If you need help, I suggest: Steady, Psycho, and Turbo. I didn't use those, but I have experience sniping. I also highly suggest to take Veronica with you, and if so then to also give her a sniper rifle and tell her to use ranged, and make sure she has enough ammo. Make sure she's not in sight when you make your first shot, to buy yourself those few valuable seconds.

Next, head down to the camp, there are a few easy NCR Troopers to take out, and there may be a third Heavy Trooper, so be prepared. Further, don't think it's easy yet - you still have the other Rangers in the other towers to take out, and you can do so the same way - make a fearless beeline for them and shoot them in the head several times with the sniper at point-blank range to blow their head off. Watch out, they will quickly kill Veronica if you're not careful. I suggest catching them by surprise. Before you get to the Rangers, however, I suggest heading to the first tent on the left, the medical tent, and performing some active euthanasia on the injured NCR Troopers inside the tent, and pick up some medical supplies. Save, and head back into combat.

If you approach this right, you should be able to take out the whole camp with minimal damage to yourself. You might want to check on Veronica several times to make sure she's not about to die, and administer stimpacks if needed.

There is not much to loot in the camp, and if you kill everyone, you'll fail two missions you hadn't started yet. However, if you're an enemy of the NCR than that is no problem; you wouldn't have been able to start those two missions anyways.

If you are good, then you should walk away with an extra ~5,000 caps for each Ranger, ~500 caps for each NCR Trooper, and ~6,000 caps for each Heavy Trooper, for a total of anywhere from 10,000 to 40,000 caps, not counting minor loot from the tents and the cost of armor and weapon repairs. Each of the Heavy Troopers has a Power Sledgehammer worth ~3,000 caps. I personally used the snipers to repair mine and Veronica's, instead of selling them, since I have 45,000 caps I still need to use. Everything else I sold or traded to the Gun Runners. It took a couple trips, but I have the Strong Back and Long Haul perks. The amount of caps you receive also depends on your Barter skill. I have a barter skill of 70.

Inhabitants

 * Major Polatli, NCR Head of the Camp
 * Stone, Private
 * Dr. Richards, Camp Doctor
 * Mayes, Quartermaster
 * Sexton, Private
 * Reyes, Tech Sergeant
 * Monroe, Lieutenant

Related Quests

 * An Ear to the Ground
 * Medical Mystery
 * Restoring Hope
 * Return to Sender
 * Tags of Our Fallen
 * We Are Legion
 * Still in the Dark

Notable Loot

 * Big Book of Science on a table in the back-right corner of the Command Center.

Appearances
appears in Fallout: New Vegas

Behind the scenes

 * A forlorn hope is a body of troops chosen to take the leading part in a military operation, such as an assault on a defended position or as defending a hazardous position, where the risk of casualties is high.
 * Forlorn Hope is an actual location in the Mojave Desert called Forlorn Hope Spring, located south of Boulder City and north of Nelson.

Bugs

 * If you fast travel to Camp Forlorn Hope, sometimes a Cazador or Bloatfly will be spawned in the camp.
 * The first time traveling to Camp Forlorn Hope, if approaching from the south, sometimes a Legion patrol will spawn inside the base, resulting in a battle between the NCR and Legion - if the Legion patrol kills any quest NCPs during the battle, this result in failed missions. Reloading and approaching from a different direction (north or west) seems to prevent the Legion troops from spawning inside the base.
 * Regardless of whether you kill all the officers there for the Legion or not, NCR troops will still respawn there and hold the base.
 * When playing as a male, Dr. Richards may seem to have mistaken the player for a female, saying, "I'm always a sucker for a pretty face, what can I do for you my fine dear?", "Is it me or did it just get hotter in here?" and, "There's my little buttercup." However, Richards may be perfectly in character to flirt.
 * In the jail, a bench inside the cell can be sat on from outside, leaving the player-character locked in the cell, which cannot be picked.


 * Please verify. After accepting any mission at the Camp Forlorn Hope whenever your outside everything appears in a violet haze very similar to that of Camp Searchlights green haze. Not sure if this intended or not. I do have the Wild Waste Perk and do not know if that makes a difference also.