i think the legion looks at them as another tribe to be conquered, or annihilated, and the bos are just defending their territory/bunkers
It has something to do with Caesar wanting to eliminate advanced tech so his people aren't exposed to it, He tells you as much when he gives you his reasons for not sending legionnaires to destroy Houses's bunker
Just want to point out early in the thread that Legion does want high tech weapons as is evident by the deal they're trying to make with Van Graffs.
They just don't like using high tech medicine or using robots to fight for them.
It does not mean that they are "anti-tech", they are just taught not to 'rely' on tech.
Seriously, it pisses me off every time when people go around saying they dislike technology and I want this corrected early on.
Legion does not hate technology.
A highly advanced tech group, that has superior tech compared to the Legion.
This group is also under fire from the NCR, a medium level tech group, has them in hiding, and roughed up pretty bad.
So, why not take them out as quickly as possible? Technically the BoS is fighting a war on two fronts. The NCR is fighting them, and the Legion as well.
*Edit* Why take all of the NCR's attention, leaving the BoS to recuperate their strength, and then deal with them after?
Pretty much this. And by Caesar's own words, it looks like the Legion is winning. If lets say the courier were to never show up. Then the Legion would set their sights on the bunker as soon as they take over Vegas. The brotherhood would avoid fighting the Legion if they could. They just don't have a choice.
Though I would imagine that if the BoS had their strength back, they would definitely try to take out the Legion because of their use of nuclear warfare. As far as I know, the Legion is the only faction to have ever irradiated an enemy camp. Camp Searchlight.
The Brotherhood of Steel isn't failing because energy weapons are more common than they used to be. They are failing because the people of the wastes are getting better at waging war.
The legion hates technology and are anti-technology.
Then why are they trying to buy energy weapons from the Van Graffs? They don't hate tech, but they do not want to become reliant on it.
I'd hafta think that given the BoS' orgins, that they'd be against the primary ideologies of Caesar's Legion and be more pro-NCR since their agenda is more in line with the pre-war US government.
Also, despite aggressions that seem to be mainly based around the Helios 1 incident, you'd think the Mojave BoS would prefer the rather underwhelming NCR presence in the region where they are generally ignored as opposed to Legion rule where they'd likely be hunted down and suppressed with CL's sheer numbers just because they could be considered a possible threat due to the power of the technology they wield.
Regardless, I don't think that the mindset of the BoS is quite like you suggest. The BoS wants to hoard weaponry, military equipment like power armor, stuff of strategic importance. The wasteland doesn't really have a huge supply of that kinda thing. The main supplier is the Van Graffs and McNamara wants you to wipe them out if you go down that path. As for technology that could better the wasteland society--e.g., medical technology such as Auto-Docs, general purpose robotics, data systems--they seem to be indifferent.
Per their interests, I'd think just stopping the supply line would be a victory. No one actually benefits visibly from the Van Graff slaughter other than Cass, who has beef, and the courier, who pockets a plasma caster and other stuff.. if he/she hasn't already.
The Legion may not possess any EWs, but neither does the NCR (please folks, spare me some example of a single NCR guy somewhere wielding a laser rifle, I don't give that much of a [censored] for my point). Imo, the BoS' strongarm tactics in regards to weaponry fails to take into account that conventional weaponry is on par or exceeds the potential of energy weapons. As for the Legion's stance on weaponry, I doubt they have any per se--Caesar afaik is mainly against having robots wage his war as opposed to his own people. Killing someone with a laser bolt as opposed to a bullet is not that different, and I highly doubt the Legion see it differently.