Recruiting
Often when you open the recruit pool you'll hear the chime of a level-up. 
This is because all the experience you've gained since the last time you
checked the recruit pool will be added to all the recruits, often giving them
new levels.  When you close the recruit pool, the experience gain sets back to
zero and you have to earn more with your squad to add it to the recruit pool.
Therefore, it's important to examine the recruits and make any squad changes
in one viewing to keep the bonus experience.  This only works for recruits
that were in the pool last time you checked, not new recruits.

                Special Encounters
In addition to normal random encounters, there are certain encounters that
don't disappear after you leave.  These aren't random at all, because they can
only occur when you cross certain squares on the World Map.  You can tell
you're in a special encounter if a) you aren't given the opportunity to dodge
it with Outdoorsman, b) you're not placed in the center of the encounter map
like usual, and c) you're kicked out of your vehicle and it's nowhere to be
seen.  Keep in mind that killing almost anyone or anything in special
encounters will drop your reputation (but usually not your BoS rank) very
quickly.  Here's a list of the special encounter squares I know of.  You can
have up to four special encounters within a square if you meet them at the
corners, but only one if you hit it at the center.  Travel accordingly.  All
directions are based on the center of the bunker, not the edges.
4S of Bunker Alpha
5E 3N of Bunker Alpha
2N of Bunker Beta
1W 4N of Bunker Beta
3W 1N of Bunker Beta
3E 3S of Bunker Beta
9W of Bunker Gamma
1W 1N of Bunker Gamma
5W 3N of Bunker Gamma
4W of Bunker Delta
1E 1N of Bunker Delta
4E 7N of Bunker Delta
7W 5N of Bunker Delta
8E 3S of Bunker Delta
2W 1N of Bunker Epsilon

                Note on Bugs
If you're not playing with a patch, it is possible to use special encounters
to duplicate items.  The first time you arrive at the special encounter, drop
some items on the ground or put them in containers.  Leave.  Now every time
you come back those items will be waiting, no matter how many times you pick
them up.  The benefits of this are obvious.

-<blank>
This encounter has no name, but there are Evereddy Bunnies talking about how
they "keep going, and going, and going" - just like the Energizer Bunny. 
Switch to radar and you'll see that they're literally all over the map.  If
you force-fire a burst weapon you'll probably hit one and they'll turn
hostile, which allows you to hunt down and kill them all for 10 experience
each but no loot (or corpses).  They can't hurt you in any way.

-Amelia
Amelia Earhart's aircraft has finally been found, but there's not much left of
her.  You can see her skeleton leaning out the cockpit window.  Nothing else
to do here.

-B1000
A B-1000 brahmin demands "your clothes, your boots, and your moo-tocycle."  It
possesses the ability to shift between brahmin shape and dead brahmin shape
until you kill it, when it stays dead.  You can take an Uzi from the corpse. 
The environment is similar to the steel plant from Terminator 2 as well.

-Bazaar Day
Several people stand around in a market area and will trade ring pulls with
you (as opposed to BoS scrip).  One sells ghoul armor that can only be worn by
ghouls (it's not that great) and another sells the Devilthorn Jacket with
effects and description mimicking a Diablo item.  You can't use it because it
requires minimum Strength of 75.  Apparently this encounter is a reference to
an Everquest weekly event.

-Brahmin Armor
The compound here is defended by four turrets at the corner that you should
snipe down before you approach.  Kill the brahmin at the center to receive the
unique item Brahmin Armor.  When equipped on a human, Brahmin Armor makes them
look like a brahmin and unable to use weapons.  Deathclaws can't use it, but
ghouls, mutants, and robots can.  It's stupid to use it for ghouls because
they can wear human types of armor that are usually better, but since mutants
can't wear armor of any kind it's quite beneficial.  Robots essentially derive
their armor from their natural resistances, so piling Brahmin Armor on top of
that increases their damage resistances to phenomenal levels.

-Brahmin Poker
Six brahmin stand around a table playing cards.  When you approach, they bolt,
allowing you to liberate almost 30,000 ring pulls from the table.

-Brahmin Tipping
The ranch has been left unguarded, which means you're free to enter and push
over brahmin to your heart's content.  Brahmin eventually right themselves.

-Brothers Grimm
Two Super Mutants are at the center of the map.  Talk to Jim to learn that Joe
has a broken leg.  Use Doctor to heal him and the Brothers say they will join
the Brotherhood recruit pool.  They seem to take a while to show up, even if
you're already at the max rank for recruitment.  The Brothers Grimm are, of
course, the purveyors of many fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel.

-Canadian Invasion
You're forced to run past an emplacement of tribals and Beastlords around a
fire to get to the exit grid.  They attack you, but if you kill them you can
capture the Water Gun.  This weapon is moderately useful for Small Guns
specialists in early robot levels, but that's it.

-Coppertops
There's a bunch of humans on treadmills and a humanoid robot that walks around
ranting.  He won't attack you.  The lockers next to the humans contain Small
Energy Cells if you unlock them.  Kind of an oblique reference to the Matrix.

-CPF vs PFC
Two groups, the Canadian People's Front and the People's Front of Canada, have
a chest-bumping contest.  Nothing happens here, but Monty Python fans might
get a laugh.

-Deathclaw Liberation
Janet the Humanitarian has a great idea: open a Deathclaw cage so that these
beautiful, majestic creatures can run free.  Unfortunately, the caged
Deathclaws haven't had a lot to eat recently and quickly devour her, then turn
on you.  They'll charge the cage, making it easy for you to shoot them down
for some experience.

-Farmer
He's a farmer and he'll trade with you.  Somehow he managed to get exactly one
round of .50 cal DU, but we don't ask questions we don't want answers to.

-Four Horsemen
War, Pestilence, Famine, and Death are dressed up as raiders and talking
around a campfire.  Though the mouseover tells you they're all "almost dead",
they actually have thousands of hit points and it's not a great idea to try to
kill them.  WARNING: If you don't have the patch and get this encounter, your
party gets randomly switched around a bit.  This means that your main
character, the one you've designed and nurtured, isn't in that slot anymore
and someone else in your squad is the leader and therefore unditchable.

-Gas Station
It's an ancient gas station with an attendant named Granma.  She sells the
Elixir of Life, which will give a permanent +1 Endurance and +15 HP to whoever
drinks it.

-Hermit
A barterer that sells the 9mm Calico M-950, among other things.  The only
thing particularly interesting about this gun is that it holds 50 rounds.

-Invasion Recreationists
You can only get this special encounter after the Canadian Invasion.  Some
people walk across a line in the dirt with much fanfare, then walk back and
have a picnic.  There's nothing to be gained here.

-Komodo Man
A tribal with an Australian accent irritates a Komodo Dragon until it kills
him.  Serves him right.  A reference to the Crocodile Hunter of Animal Planet
fame.

-L33tists
Two people named L33tleboy and Ph4tman walk around a fire.  The names refer to
the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII, but the style
is something callet 13375p34k or leetspeak - using numbers to substitute for
similar-looking letters.  It's common among those who spend way too much time
staring at their keyboards.  L33tleboy has Amphetamine Gum.

-Merchant
Actually, it's a group of raiders, but they don't attack you.  The one
standing outside the tent will trade with you - he's the most polite raider
I've ever seen in this game.

-Mir
The Russian space station crashed in the wasteland, forming a crater on
impact.  Nothing interesting here.

-Morte
In Latin, "morte" means death.  In Tactics, "Morte" means "sarcastic floating
skull guy".  He doesn't do anything interesting, but it is a reference to
another game by Black Isle called Planescape: Torment.

-Phil
Phil the Nuka Cola Guy rides up on his bike and takes a break in the middle of
the map.  If you kill him, you can take 100 Nuka-Cola, 20 Molotov Cocktails,
and one very special Fusion Cola that acts like a drug.

-Pitch Black
The environment is, naturally, pitch black.  A man named Riddick makes a few
comments and starts walking out of the cave over a series of radioactive
puddles that provide the only light.  Sit back and let him walk all the way
out.  Surrounding you on all sides are Deathclaws hidden in the darkness that
will start attacking when you move and can tear poor Riddick to pieces.  If he
survives and you live to see him, you can eventually find him in the recruit
pool back at the Brotherhood.  It is VERY EASY to get killed in this
encounter, especially if you hit it before you have Big Guns or Energy
Weapons.  Expect to get pincered from the northeast and southwest at least
three times.  You can exit just past the final puddle.  The entire thing is a
reference to the movie Pitch Black.

-Reaver Dance
Nine dancing Reavers are on a stage, an obvious reference to the Irish
Riverdance group.  Nothing else happens.

-Sixth Sense
Cole the Brahmin is surrounded by sneaking brahmin that are impossible to hit.
But you can kill Cole.  There's no reward here, just the reference to the
movie of the same name.

-The Pipboy
It's the original Pipboy, a little guy with a rifle who wants to join your
party.  Given time, he'll show up at the BoS recruit pool.  NOTE: Even with
the patch, it is apparently possible to hit this special encounter more than
once - I found it three times in one game, twice in the same square.

-Titanic
The dead guy is probably Jack from the movie of the same name.  You can find a
crudely-drawn piece of pornography on his body.  It's not worth anything.

-Trader
Another merchant of the wastes, the Trader will trade with you.  He's the only
place in the game where you can get the P220 Sig Sauer, a 9mm pistol that
isn't anything special.

-Uprising
Brotherhood soldiers Hubert and Mcarthy, wearing Power Armor and carrying
Vindicators, stand watch in front of a locked building with the Brotherhood
seal on it.  In front of them are several dead civilians, one of whom has
Amphetamine Gum.  You can kill the soldiers for a little experience, but it's
not worth the reputation drop.  There's no way to get into the building.

                Bonus Mission
There's one hidden mission in the game called Springfield that takes place
during Bunker Beta.  I've heard some rumors that Interplay has been asking
that this information be redacted, but Interplay's got bigger problems right
now so they seem unlikely to tell me to withdraw this.

Go through C drive into the 14 Degrees East folder, then Fallout Tactics, then
the core folder.  Find the file labeled "bos.cfg."  This file only exists
after you start a game, so if you just installed run it and then exit out. 
Open bos.cfg with Notepad and scroll to the bottom of the document.  At the
top of the screen is the statement {misc.bonusMission} = {false}.  Change
{false} to {true} and save the altered file.  You must do this before Beta
Bunker in order to play the bonus mission, which will show up at the same time
Mardin does.

I won't give you a walkthrough for this mission because it's fun to work out
on your own.  I will tell you that you'll get the fifth vehicle in this
mission, the Buggy, which is maneuverable like the Scouter and carries only
two people but has even less armor.  Also, as soon as you arrive in the
mission you get some experience just for finding out how to get it, plus a
boost every time you open a chest for the whole mission.  Fun stuff. 
Incidentally, Fallout Springfield has a few features that kinda-sorta imply
that the designers were going for Springfield from The Simpsons: nuclear
cooling towers at the northeast edge of the map, a big donut sign for Planet
Donut, and a statue of a man holding a rifle in the town square.  Another
oddity about this mission is that though I went up a rank, the game never
seemed to recognize it until one mission later for the rest of the game.

Kevin Johnston's Blog - http://www.300bucks.ca