I've seen this phrase thrown around quite a few times to further several arguements; "The Minutemen are weak, so it makes no sense that they can take on BoS." "The Minutemen are weak, so why would they fight the Institute?" "I suppose I could ally woth the Minutemen, but they're so weak, I can't ever see them fufilling their goal of unifying the commonwealth."
Correction: the Minutemen START weak. I'm a 100 hours in, and that two man team has morphed into a 300+ army with 52 artillery emplacements and 20+ sets of power armor. They have military installations all across the Commonwealth and the love of the people. When I finally got around to kicking out the BoS, fighting rhem was a total joke- their pathetic assault on the castle was met by a massive minuteman force, fully outfitted with power armor superior to the BoS's and weaponry to match. Crow about BoS tech all you like- just like the NCR, The Minutemen have dominated with numbers and a superior vision for the future.

*Takes airport and proudly hangs Minutemen flag over Maxston's bloodied corpse* "GO ON, TELL ME AGAIN HOW IF YOU'RE NOT BROTHERHOOD, YOU'RE NOTHING. I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE ROAR OF MY ARTILLERY BLOWING THE OUT OF THE F***ING SKY!!!"

Uh.

I've tried for like ever to get settlers to wear power armor

so uh

sounds like bs

http://i.imgur.com/p6M2kxE.jpg

(It's a pain, but if you orient PA properly behind guard posts they'll pop in- plus, if a settler sees an enemy and PA is close by, they prioritize getting over anything else)

You can't directly order settlers to wear power armor. You can order companions into it though. But yes, if there is a hostile and some PA nearby then settlers will definitely use it, if it has a core in it. I like to put a siren next to a bunch of power armor. When a hostile is spotted, the siren goes off, and free settlers head to the siren.

That's [censored] brilliant. Thank you, subjagator.

I just gave my Minutemen and militarized Settlers ballistic weave army fatigues and sturdy/heavy combat armor (heavy is more rare) so they sit between 100-200 def. A few get ballistic weave fedoras for an extra 110 def. There is no power armor necessary, as that much defense seems to last through through any conceivable fight...considering the weapons I give them... soupled up plasma/laser sniper rifles and gauss guns (take 1-3 hits to destroy a knight). Of course, the real kicker is rocket turrets that pretty much level any scene in seconds with a few heavy laser spaced in for variety.

I rarely bother with more than one power armor installation, but if you want them to use power armor, you need to provide it with a fusion core in a location that defenders will surely be (ie, near a guard post in a harder to reach area). Otherwise, enemies can get to the armor first. In combat, AIs will enter any available powered up power armor nearby. You want to be sure enemies don't take it.

It's pretty easy to build a force as the playergod that can best the BoS. You don't even have to get all that fancy as you'll have the benefit of turrets, which are quite formidable on the high end (rocket and heavy laser).

Of course, when people call the Minutemen weak, they generally exclude player influence, picturing the standard Minutemen patrols that have 30 def or so worth of shoddy armor and a crank operated laser musket. I'd argue that you HAVE to take into account player influence, as the faction is led by the player and only exists because the player reforms and rebuilds it. It seems a bit unrealistic that one individual can single-handedly arm an entire faction... of course, not much in the game IS realistic, so I'd argue there is little reason to start bickering over realism. At the end of the day, the in-game power of the Minutemen can, if built right, vastly exceed any other faction. Sadly, we can't do the same for other factions. I wish we had plotlines to eventually seize control over the various factions and actually be able to direct them. The BoS could definitely use some decent leadership...

Of course, the best faction is still the Atom Cats, regardless of overall strength.

Damn that's so smart! That's way better than what I've been doing- thanks man! Really though, I'm just waiting for the mod that just takes the order into power armor command you can use on companions and lets us use it on settlers- I can't imagine it would be that hard to implement...

Ya, really wosh you get atom cats to assist a faction...

They're what the BoS should be. Better leadership, better power armor, better style, none of the racism!

I really wish we could do more with them. I'm sure DLC or mods will work it up eventually...