You could just grab the alien blaster at the north end of the map, walk into Cesar's camp and cap every one of those knuckle dragging junkie monkeys! That's what I did last night ... good stress reliever.
Hmmmm.
You could always try the quest. And then later spawn the character you ate/killed? with the console commands.
personally I freaking iced ultra lux, they attacked me while investigating the disappearance of some dude.
make em draw first blood.
Here's my analysis.
Vats is useless at far range.
When you get surrounded by jerky fast moving mobs at close range using VATs is a good idea. It can save ammo and chip away at a particular parts of the enemies body.
Its also a good way to appraise weak points on the targets.
But...
Yeah but.
You loose all of the xp, gear, and karma from doing the mission. At least this way you can get the "Sword of the East" and "Legate's Helmet". Of course you could just give yourself those items but the battle is more fun in hard mode.
this is the procedure I followed to attain post-end game play, some of these steps might be unnecessary so if you find a more efficient approach drop a comment
1. Own your way through the final mission of the game. Collect stuff as if you will be able to profit later, because you will!
2...