That's a lot of testosterone for such a small rocket

It does okay...if you mounted your rocket on a rooftop would it be visible enough to attract customers?

People bash the minutemen for being under equipped and under train... Very true "to some degree". They are as well equipped as you "the General" make them. The minutemen are the people, they are the settlers and provisioners and the dedicated minutemen. True that It can be annoying to run around saving settlement after settlement, but no more annoying as say mentoring squires who won't shut up and protecting scribe that want to go to the gunner plaza "and I hope Bethesda makes a work around in future DLC". But my minutemen overall are very well equipped and have many outposts, camps, and even two forts along with many farms and trading posts. My point is simple as the General you make the call in the future of the new colonial minutemen an shape the Commonwealth... and are not subject to the xenophobic ideals of a organization that well throw one of their own to the pit over something he had no control over... In just that he is.


My view point is in my current play through I don't intend to throw the first stone and am willing to work with the brotherhood "however I'm not above faking loyalty until I've gain valued logistical data and free access to hardware" to stop the institute and find my son, but once it's done the brotherhood is leaving the Commonwealth either of their own will or in body bags. I will not have a invading force take control over the population of the Commonwealth. Every free willed synth, ghoul, and civil super mutant will be subject to Commonwealth law not the brotherhood. I've fought too long and hard for the people of this land to just surrender it to a bunch of power armor wearing xeno [censor]boys who demand tech and subservience.

I thought coursers were better than them. I swear I saw a courser kill several BoS soldiers but I could be mistaken. I will have to spawn in a bunch and test them.

Garvey and the Minutemen are basically east coast commonwealth NCR. So basically Brotherhood - NCR War part 2 on the East Coast!!

Nah, NCR is way more authoritarian. They wanted to turn NV into a police state, more or less. Minutemen just want the [censored] and pillaging to stop.

If Nick were a gen 3 synth, the Brotherhood wouldn't just sneer at him when you bring him with you, they'd kill him and no amount of charisma would be enough to talk them out of it. They tolerate him because he doesn't pretend to be human, and if the people of Diamond City were really so adamant, and make an argument that he's a very very useful robot, they probably wouldn't destroy him. That said, I think that you are vastly overestimating the loyalty of the people of Diamond City. This is the same generation of folks who stood by, or even joined in, when the mayor drove out every one of their long-time ghoul neighbors. If they would stand for that, which was on a large scale, what makes you think that they would stand by Valentine to the death? As Hancock put it, the culture of Diamond City is one of tools. Selfish, look-the-other-way, tools.


As for th Commonwealth settlers, how do they treat them? Everything in their dialogue hints that they are here to defend the Commonwealth, and all of humanity, from the Institute and its synths. The only aggressive action taken against settlers is in a side quest that was given by an individual member who admits that what he's doing is unofficial and under the table.

That's not fair. Most of the people I've seen siding with the Brotherhood have given their reasons, and they usually extend beyond "guns and blowing things up".


I disagree on the storyline and personalities, and while you're entitled to your opinion, I'm honestly surprised to hear this one. The Minutemen have exactly 3 named characters in total, and Preton and Sturges are the only ones involved in the main questlines at all. Not only that, but I've noticed that Preston is widely regarded as having one of the most cardboard personalities in the game. Compare that to Danse, Haylen, Rhys, Teagan, or Maxson, all of whom have very distinctive and powerful and stand out personalities, regardless of your opinion of their morals or character. And the Minutemen questlines is literally "get enough settlements to join you -> defend the Castle from an attack -> Nuke the Institute". They have no relationship with or strong opinions on any other factions, and honestly seem to be in the MQ at all because you might need a fallback means of finishing the game if you get booted from the other three factions.

The Brotherhood storyline actually involves the steps in preparing for and launching an assault on an enemy that they came here specifically with the intent to destroy, one that represents the very core of what they despise as a faction. I found their role in this game interesting because it puts the Brotherhood in a position where they are doing exactly what their codex tells them to do, and it's actually justifiable and proof that they aren't just power armored robbers who exist to take people's energy weapons. It showed the BoS codex being applied to a situation where their goal truly is in humanity's interest. You're completely entitled to disagree, of course, but I find that a lot more interesting than anything the Minutemen brought to the table story-wise.

I didn't much care for the rehash of Fallout 3's ending, but at least they were actually doing something the whole time besides "I've gotten word of another settlement than needs help".

The orders are to get the food. If force or violence is used it's because you chose to use it. In other words, you, the player, are the one responsible. Not the Brotherhood.

I watched X6-88 get repeatedly downed by a BoS patrol of two Knights and two Scribes at Libertalia. Dunno how he'd do against a Knight one on one tho.

You can bring X6 to the Prydwen and they'll 'tolerate' him too, and as a courser he's as gen 3 as they get. One could blame gameplay mechanics, but compare to how if you bring him to the Railroad HQ everyone flips their lid and turns hostile forever.

If the Brotherhood are ok with it then yes, they are partly responsible too. If you have a chain of command like that, it is your commanding officers responsibility to keep you in line. They do say any means necessary, which means, use force if necessary, kill them all if necessary, the phrase any means necessary is pretty clear on its meaning. If they were not ok with killing everyone they would say it.

Am I the only one who sees the BoS as a means to an end until the Institute is defeated and then uses the Minutemen to rebuild "home"?

I think it's the best ending and a nice set up for a future conflict IMO. An ex-Brotherhood Sentinel becomes disillusioned with their methods and rebuilds the Minutemen as their General. Who better to take on the BoS than a rival of their own making? Not that I want to see this happening anytime soon.

But it is still you that made that choice. The narrative that the Brotherhood is terrible or evil because they steal from farmers is wrong. YOU chose to steal from the farmers. YOU are the terrible or evil one.

This kind of makes sense to me as well. My PC being a vet and all loved working with the BoS as it made him feel right at home. After that working with the MM to rebuild makes a lot of sense and the BoS really isn't into that.

Knowing how and having the means to are two different things, though.

Not saying it'd be easy.

It would probably take years for the Minutemen to be ready for something like that logistically speaking and that's being optimistic. Tensions would also have to reach a boiling point. To the MM the BOS are "those badasses in power armor over there; we should probably stay out of their way" and to the BOS the MM are "LOLOL lowly scavvers trying to play militia and build a government". It would take a real conflict of interest for tensions to tip over into war and that means not arbitrarily shooting Maxson in the face because "OMG I be SJW he be Hitlah!!"

Also the Man Out of Time is the best trained soldier on the North American continent, being from Pre-War US and all. That definitely counts for something.

By the time he's completed the main quest I agree. I'm not so sure about before that, though. You need to remember the BoS has been in working order since the bombs fell -- and even if you want to say their rudimentary training isn't as good, they fight and kill more dangerous things than Nate or Nora ever dreamed of fight before Vault 111.

Anyway if you went BoS that means that Prime is active and rolling. I just don't think the MM can stop the Brotherhood once that happens.

The BoS probably have much more combined experience of fighting in the wasteland which can give them a massive advantage. But the SS has formal training in strategy and tactics that the BoS lack. Generally speaking a professional army will trump one without professional training all things being equal. The SS shouldn't be able to single handedly beat the BoS but with the minutemen and enough time and training they might end up with a much stronger army than the BoS

During the MM ending they use artillery to destroy the airship, something that could still be done as long as it remained where it is. They might not be able to kill Prime, but they can kill the BoS leadership. It might end up in mutual destruction but the setting is post nuclear apocalypse so it fits.

The artillery they use is cannonballs. Those wouldn't dent Prime.

I know, that is why I said they could kill the leadership on the airship, but then it would lead to mutual destruction because prime would be on the loose. They might also wait until they have an opportunity like the one in the institute ending. Shoot down the airship when Prime is under it, kill them both.

That's a wild assumption to be making. All we know about the MALE SS is that he was in the military. We don't know what his role was. We don't even know if he was enlisted or an officer, do we? The SS's understanding of tactics and strategy might not extend to anything beyond the squad level tactics he needed to know to be an effective member of the squad. You're also ignoring that the Brotherhood can trace it's lineage back directly to the exact same military that trained the SS. Unless they failed to maintain their training and forgot a lot of things, they would know everything that the SS would know. They've also had 200 years to potentially evolve those tactics and strategies.


The female SS was a lawyer, so she probably has none of that.

1) He's not a scoundrel. Graham Crackers are good.

2) He WAS flirting with you.

3) It's not a cowboy hat. It's a Militia Hat. Same thing, only it's in leather.

4) He calls you "general" to flirt with you. Ask his "little general".

Ha, just noticed the flag. http://imgur.com/gxRPmqx

Oh yeah, also regarding this whole Minutemen vs Brotherhood stuff, it may not even matter how skilled a strategist or tactician the SS is. You would stilibe putting a militia against a professional army. Militias are historically notoriously unreliable. They had a tendency to break and flee long before professional soldiers. As such generals never placed them anywhere vital unless they were planning on them breaking to set up a trap for the enemy.

True, it also depends on how the people of the commonwealth see the BoS in the long run. If they support them then the MM are just another faction against the BoS and will most likely not be able to dislodge them. If however the people of the commonwealth support the MM and see the BoS as an invading army then it is more like rebellion if the MM attack the BoS and rebellions have been won and lost throughout history. It doesn't always come down to an all out war, usually the rebellion has a single objective, overthrowing the current rulers by killing them or forcing them out of power. If the MM can kill off the BoS leadership by clowing up their airship, and all of the residents of the commonwealth are hostile to the remaining BoS they might just pull out, especially since they already succeeded in their objective of killing off the Institute.

If you go with the idea of completing the main quest with the Brotherhood, then switching to the Minutemen, I have little doubt that you'd be facing an up hill battle. The Brotherhood will have just destroyed the Institute. Given how much the Commonwealth fears the Institute, that alone would be enough to win the goodwill of the people. The Brotherhood isn't done yet, though. They are still focusing on making the Commonwealth a safer place. They are still battling the super mutants and ferals. When they finish that, they'd probably have to screw up big time to lose that goodwill.