This incident was the Quincy Massacre. http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Quincy_Massacre

Overall, from a purely roleplaying view, my good character joined the BoS because they were the first and closest thing to resemble the pre-war military he was so used to, while at the same time clearly opposing the Institute - which he thought his main opponent - and obviously having advanced military power. By the time he realized they were bigots and racists he was too invested to oppose them.

I honestly think that's one of the more believable ways to roleplay a BoS pc in this game, all things considered... (that, or a fanatic, that would also be plausible).

I don't think the Institute had or knew about the stockpile of nukes, otherwise they would have. It would have definitely made for a hilariously anti-climactic entrance for the Brotherhood.

This is exactly what I did.

I agree.

My essential version of the Survivor is he's trying to be an amendable, understanding peace-maker but he's essentially coming to realize that no one is going to budge on any of their beliefs. So, he's been forced to become a Chessmaster instead (it helps he has 10 Charisma and Intelligence). He wants to give everyone a chance to say their peace but was mostly only interested in finding Shaun and MAYBE doing some good along the way.

Now that he knows Shaun is a Mad Scientist who makes Super Mutants and enslaves his Replicant children, the Survivor is about ready to just kick the board over and take down everybody else.

Especially since Danse is so brainwashed into self-hatred he was ready to let himself be murdered for being a Synth (and thus my Survivor's grandson). With that in mind, the Brotherhood killing Glory (another Synth grandchild) REALLY put my Survivor over.

A conversation with Shaun also said the Institute has a lot of problems with the fact they're all a bunch of academics so they actually have no idea how to run a military or government.

It's kind of funny that their solutions tend to amount to, "send a Synth doppleganger at it" because they're not nearly as talented at using their equipment and science as the BoS would be in their place.

Why the Survivor would be able to take over so easily--because he's a strong personality in a civilization of agreeable meek scientists.

The Minutemen consist of people without training, Preston, the player and all cowards who skip out on then during the Quincy Massacre.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Quincy_Massacre

The Old Gunner Lady also said a bunch of Minutemen left after the Castle fell.

So you have old men too.

But yeah, I like the Quincy Massacre occurring because the Minutemen couldn't get their crap together. It makes them more nuanced.

It also makes their victory even more impossible. And did this Lady care to explain why she didn't aid her comrades during the Quincy Massacre? There only two types of pre-QM Minutemen: Backstabbers and Preston Garvey.

Well, she was retired.

As for everyone else, a major theme of Fallout 4 is letting go of the past to form a new identity.

So, I imagine any Minutemen who rejoin are making atonement for their past mistake.

Lol the BoS was started by US Army soldiers. They are trained to be soldiers.

The minutemen are a rag tag group of people wanted to be lawmen.

Also Vertibird are destroyed in game for gameplay reasons because they can also be enemies.

Soldiers serve a government.

The BOS serves the code.

They're KNIGHTS.

How convenient, the only other pre QM Minutemen who talks with you was retired when the QM happened, so the player doesn't realizes that all other pre QM Minutemen are backstabber.

Yeah, when I screw up really hard, I just come back later and expect to be hired, by the guy who had to pay to my incompetence.

You don't know much about Knights, do?

Knights follow code, they don't serve a code.

Helicopters with Vertical Take Off and Land capability. Still helicopters.

Knights actually follow their feudal lord with the exception of religious orders.

But I'm making a distinction based on KOTOR.

I said "aren't just Vertical". They are Helicopters, but they are also more than helicopters, that's what the word "just" implies.

And by the way are there any Helicopters in use without Vertical Take Off and Land capability?

Unless you are some kind of insane programmer, you don't serve a code, you follow a code. Just pick up a dictionary.

The T-60 is actually resistant to laser rifles. You can see a soldier testing the armor on the prydewen by having a scribe shoot him while wearing the armor.

It's also why the X-02 was so feared because it was the first armor to truly improve across the board over the T-60 which was already highly resistant to small arms fire.

The BoS also have Gatling Lasers they developed. Give a squad of 20-30 of them Gatling Lasers and let them drop into the castle and lets see what happens.

The Vertibird would be perfect for a fly by with Knights dropping out of it.

Yeah, the Brotherhood of Steel could easily crush the Minutemen. If it weren't for a catastrophic loss of their infrastructure and an immediate attack before they lose all cohesion.

The Brotherhood losing the Prydwen means they have to wipe out the Castle now before they run out of food, supplies, or get pinned down in the hostility of the Wasteland.

Should they have waited?

Maybe.

Should they have foregone vengeance against the Minutemen and just attacked the Sole Survivor alone? Maybe.

Sometimes there's no good options.

No, the BoS was simply nerfed in many regards, so the player can win. In a more realistic universe the BoS would have kicked their asses. Their miniguns would kill you with one hit, because that's how gatling guns work.

They would fly by, drop some knights in power armor and shot lots of people with their Gatling guns.

You would never be able to simply "find" this many weapons and armor, in a world that was scavenged for two centuries, someone else would have found these weapons. And you also can't build better weapons upgrades that the BoS. But the game play demands the opposite.

I really don't mind that the game in unrealistic, but that the story should be affected by that. Just image there were a cut scene were a human takes 5 shots to the head before he dies.

The Minutemen don't need to "find" armor since they produce their own.

That's why Laser Muskets exist.

And really, it's not like they could get anywhere near you before their Vertbirds were shot down or they didn't simply shell the BoS to oblivion the first time.

"Realism" doesn't exist but the idea the Minutemen would be stupid enough to just let the enemy fly up to them is another gameplay extrapolation.

They can't possibly craft weapons and armor that stand up to the BoS. The BoS has Gatling guns. Gatling lasers and power armor.

Just think about how long it would take to reload this Howitzer, that shouldn't exist in the first place. And it is very likely that the BoS soldiers are not all at the same place.

They Vertibirds would simply fly faster. It doesn't make sense that they fly with walking speed.

Realism exist, but the game avoids whenever it would help the BoS.

The BoS are trained solders in power armor and advanced weapons, the Minutemen are a bunch of backstabbers with primitive weapons.

And what would they do if the BoS occupied one or more settlements with a howitzer? What would they do about that, bomb the hell out of their own people?!

A Minutemen quest has them gain a functioning steel mill. Which, honestly, goes a long way in-story to explaining how they produce Howitzers. They have, for their ending, at least eight settlements actively supply them with weapons, food, and people.

They don't have to stand up to the Brotherhood of Steel but once.

The Brotherhood of Steel does not have a logistics train to sustain any action in the Commonwealth as they are far-far from the Capital Wasteland and friendly territory.

They also begin the finale suffering a catastrophic loss of their leader as well as mobile headquarters as well as all of the military resources therein.

The Gatlin Laser also is a weird thing to bring up as the Minutemen start with THREE on turrets. You know, what gatlin guns were used on before power armor, helicopters were invented. Yeah, they can't use them mobilely but that's irrelevant to defending an entrenched position.

The Minutemen winning just requires them to survive a single battle which apparently is IMPOSSIBLE despite the fact they have access to Pre-War weapons in a big ass armory, a fortified position, and their enemy has suffered a massive blow to both morale as well as their infrastructure.

The BoS very possibly DO seize one of the Minutemen's settlements and that, theoretically, could be one of the events which results in the Survivor turning against the BoS.

But that doesn't answer the [censored] question what they would do about it.

They would simply occupy settlements and destroying their supply lines and let the Minutemen starve to death. Many settlers would simply cease the supply line, because most of the Minutemen are at the castle while the BoS is out there with their Vertibirds and could strike at any moment. As the QM showed not even the Minutemen themselves are loyal to each other. Hell a lot of these backstabbing Minutemen would probably switch sides.