Why the Minutemen are the Commonwealth's Best Hope - Fallout 4 Lore 

Thanks for watching folks! For those interested, here are the other videos in this series: Why the Institute is Evil: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tUM0SATV1Pw.html Why the Brotherhood of Steel is Evil: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ovDSvyS8WgQ.html Why the Railroad is Good but Flawed: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FvZS0Irv6nk.html The Evil Ending to Nuka World: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Ly4IAlNpBLE.html The Good Ending to Nuka World: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ujji8ZDCH8g.html The Good, Evil, & Best Endings to Far Harbor: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-EKSV2vQrFtc.html How to Navigate This Video: 00:26 - Part 1: The Minutemen's Faults 05:19 - Part 2: Leadership Problems 12:29 - Part 3: Who Helps the Most People? 16:05 - Part 4: Individual Liberty & Choice 21:03 - Part 5: The Value of Human Life 23:18 - Part 6: The Minutemen are Not Rulers 25:56 - Part 7: Why the Minutemen are Humanity's Best Hope

The Brotherhood of Steel in a nutshell: “ congratulations! You are being saved. Please do not resist.”

Imagine if the Brotherhood's technology with the mindset of the Minutemen . . .

"The minutemen don't have war machines" Me: downloads automatron dlc, "not yet they dont"

I love how you put this , “they didn’t require money, food, shelter, they didn’t demand loyalty, they just came”

I wish there was a minuteman quest where you take back quincy. That would be so satisfying.

“They don’t have an army of warrior robots” Me with the automaton dlc: allow me to introduce myself

Playing the Minutemen is like the Hardest difficulty campaign. Brotherhood is easy, Institute is easy, but with the Minutemen your rebuilding and uniting the entire Commonwealth and fighting against the onslaught of Raiders and monsters. I love the challenge and the pure intent of the Minutemen.

On my very first playthrough i was a flailing newborn. I did my best for Garvey and he made me general. I felt like I owed him and the Commonwealth to live up to the title. And when the Brotherhood proctor said to 'force' MY settlers and MY minutemen to fork over the crops to them for no reason other then "we are the brotherhood", i marked him for death that and I wanted Maxson's coat

Elder Lyons would have loved Preston and the Minutemen.

The Minutemen were always my favorite. And unpopular opinion... I actually like Preston. Yeah, he's fun to pick on, but he has the Minutemen's ideology at heart. "Protect the people at a minute's notice." "Protect the People"

"WE DO THESE THINGS, NOT BECAUSE THEY ARE EASY, BUT BECAUSE... THEY ARE RIGHT." -Elliot J. DeVought, Minutemen General

The Minutemen: You are being saved, feel free to assist or stand by. The Brotherhood: You are being saved, please do not resist. The Railroad: The Synths are being saved, the rest of you can fend for yourselves. The Institute: You are being kidnapped, replaced, experimented on, and killed, You Will Not Resist.

As someone who regularly plays as a Minuteman, I have to repeat what a good friend of mine said about Being the General. "The General is not a ruler or a dictator. They are a leader, an example. They do not sit in the background, commanding and ordering. They lead, forging a path for the future." Anyway, love ya, Ox. Prolly never see this, but have a great day,

*He Protect* *He Attack* *But Most Importantly* *He Helps Another Settlement in Need of Your Help Ill Mark It On Your Map*

The Brotherhood has an airship with power armor The Institute has an underground base with robots The Minutemen have a castle, artillery and like 100 settlements with people willing to defend it, they alone win on the community aspect, they have something the others don’t

The Minutemen is the most logical pick for the Commonwealth when compared to other factions. The BOS pretty much just showed up out of nowhere to salvage tech and build their power, the Institute eggheads are completely detached from life on the surface and sending synths all over the place, and the Railroad is by every definition a joke.

*Phone rings* "Vault Dweller, It's Preston.........let's go bowling."

The main reason why the people hate the minutemen is because of the annoying side-quests and the inability to command and send squads to settlements with ease. If Bethesda implemented a patrol system for the minutemen where you can either personally deal with the situation or send a group of minutemen to diffuse the situation, add to that a few more missions like retaking Quincy and helping to mediate the creation of the Commonwealth coalition / the Commonwealth republic, then they would be the best faction in the game.

Maxson: *gets respect by killing a deathclaw with nothing but a combat knife.* Level 200 meelee build sole survivor: *pulls out a standard walking cane* Hold my potato.

I feel so bad for Preston. As annoying as he is, he is easily one of the most noble characters in the game and is clearly a very good person. He cares so much about everybody and about the common people. He just wants everyone to live well, be fed, be happy, be healthy and be at peace. He is one of the only characters who really cares about eliminating evil in the commonwealth. He lost all of his former superiors, most of his friends and his family is dead. He didn’t deserve to lose that much.

7:18 Danse: But when Maxson took over, he single-handedly re-prioritized the Brotherhood from the ground up and put us back on the path to glory Sole Survivor: Ok, that great Danse but could you back up just a little bit?

I know this is late, but I would like to voice a similar but different complaint with the Minute Men. When I was a Corporal in the Marine Corps, I had men under my command, an E-4. And I had brave Marines willing to follow me or act in my absence. This is what I think is missing from the Minute Men. I don't want to act like a raider boss, I WANT to be able to grab some Minute Men to go WITH me, and go to defend a settlement OR if I am stuck doing some other quest, send others to act in my stead. I don't want to be free of Crimes or have caps delivered to me. I want to be able to be a military leader. What should of happened after a point is when you have a Minute Man quest, it should be a two way conversation. Preston "Hey, X n X needs pur help, its (enemy here or quest there)." You 1 "Round up some men, we're going in." (Lead a team into the fire fight) 2 "Hows the defenses there, think they will hold?" (Have them deal with it with their own strength) 3. "I won't make it in time. Who's near by?" (I'm in Far Harbor, or doing the main Quest, stop bothering me with a radiant quest) 4. "Whats the situation?" (More detail) Again..I don't want to be a raider boss, but I DO want to be able to take this weak little faction that I have turned into a juggernaut of justice..and let it flex its muscle outSIDE of the flippen GENERAL going in alone with a Reporter to take care of some bull crap. Its true, the best leaders LEAD from the front, but Patton didn't have privates telling him to go clear a German Bunker, because the Private General Patton trained..can't be assed to help or do what HE signed up to do as well.

Preston didn't fight for the farmers. He fought with the farmers. Ever since the 1800s the "minutemen" have been an army of the people, not the government. The name may change, but the cause never will.

It’s the reason why the Commonwealth Minutemen is my favorite faction in all of Fallout. It’s not an army that wants to take over territory or secure some particular resource. It’s just people trying to look out for one another. In a way, the Minutemen turns the Commonwealth into a connected functioning community. They trade, they build together, and most importantly, they come to each others’ defense when threatened. What makes it special, is that you, the player, can make that happen when you put in the effort and dedication. Like Oxhorn said, you can take the weakest faction and make them the strongest, built on actual decent ethics and with a sense of humanity.

I love listening to the calm discussion about morals while watching people’s heads explode.

I don’t understand why people accuse the Minutemen of any economic style. They could literally work in any way. All they do is protect people because it’s a good thing to do.

"But, Todd, these radiant quests will make players hate the minutemen faction" "let it be, only the people's player will choose them"

I think it's unfortunate that you can't appointment officers for the minutemen. There are a few companions who would be amazing officers (examples.. Paladin Danse or McCready). I also would've loved to be able to introduce the minutemen to the railroad or another faction of your choice to ally with each other.

What the minutemen lack in tech and organization, they make up for in.... *Mods*

“Let he that is greatest among you be the servant of all.”

*protecting people at a minutes notice* Where did you get my fast travel?

I side with the Minutemen every single time I play. "Another one for the Minutemen!"

The minutemen are the only faction that allows you to rebuild civilization. They’re the only ones who are fighting for settlements freedom, for the commonwealths freedom. And I think that puts them on the same level as the minutemen of the American Revolution, not just in looks and ideals, but in their efforts to obtain and defend liberty and freedom. That’s why I sided with them and why they’re my favorite faction

Yes, that’s right, minutemen are the best think that could happen to Commonwealth. We help people in minute notice, we respond in minute notice, we are the minutemen, we will make Commonwealth one big settlement that will no longer need someone’s help. But before, you must help some settlement, I’ll mark it on your map.

This is my favorite faction. It is moral, justified, they are the underdogs, and we actually help people and work together. I feel good doing a playthrough of it. We may not be the strongest but we do it all with great intentions.

I love the minutemen. I actually enjoy building settlements and changing the commonwealth. I just wish I could deploy units to defend locations when they are attacked. While I am doing other missions. Like building squads giving them ranks and naming the units would be cool.

And that's why I love the Minuteman. And when Preston comes to say a settlement needs some help, I smile and said "Where?"

"the minute man are the weakest" it reminds me of the NCR, the weakest faction to rise up, and now is a powerhouse that even the brotherhood of steel fear, just like the song "started from the bottom now we're here"

Sole survivor: “Why can’t you lead the minutemen?” Preston: “That’s just not who I am.” Preston: **proceeds to tell the Sole survivor to do for the rest of the game**

I realize this video is more than 5 years old, but I'm late in getting into Fallout 4 and am just now finding and enjoying your videos. I don't know if you'll even be aware of this comment after so many years, but I just wanted to say thank you for your series of videos on the different factions in the game. You have taken what is "just a survival game" and raised it to the level of deep philosophical and moral ponderings. When I encountered the Minutemen, they were the only faction who truly stirred my heart, and their ideas of what the world should be like was the only vision that made me want to stand up and say "YES"!! Every other faction works ONLY if you have a strong leader with good morals, but with the Minutemen the true function of a leader is to inspire the people to believe in their own abilities to be good and better than they have been. The minutemen actually fail if all there is is just another strong leader, because the true strength of a civilization lies in all of its citizens wanting that civilization to be the best it can be. Imagine if Preston had come up to you and said " I am the General, because only I have the vision to see what the Minutemen should be. And that is why you should follow me." It would have placed the minutemen on the same level as the leaders of all of the other factions. But instead he says "I believe in you. I believe that you can do this." This is the true strength of the Minutemen: that they believe in the ability of EVERY citizen to want the best for everyone. There is a maxim that every religion, all of science, and a lot of philosophies and political theories point to: "Life flourishes when there is mutual benefit and cooperation." And that is what the Minutemen stand for.

1:17 “‘Protect the people at a minute’s notice’...” “Nope.” “... That was the idea.” Understandable, have a nice day.

Oh my lord imagine if the Minuteman had Liberty Prime with a Jetpack

When I played with the minutemen I actually kept playing after the main story line because I just wanted to keep building them up to keep getting each settlement one by one to build artillery in each one to get more settler's to have shops and farms and protection at each place that was once just a little farm when you play with the minutemen you never lose interest to keep going

That moment when you tell Preston you didn't sound the evacuation alarm at the Institute is one of the few moments his voice actor actually lets Preston show emotion. If he acted like that more he'd be a more interesting character.

I'm disappointed that there's no option to unite the three surface factions in an assault on the Institute. It would require the deleted option where Paladin Danse challenges Arthur Maxon for control of the Brotherhood of Steel. I envision it thusly: you would have to convince the factions to work together; getting the Railroad and the Brotherhood to get along for this will be the tough part. First, you have the Minutemen and the Brotherhood activate Liberty Prime. You sent him towards C.I.T. ruins, catching the Institute's full attention, whereupon they deploy their Synth armies to the surface. While the Institute is distracted by the coalition army and the Iron Giant, you take control of the Institute's teleporter, smuggle a strike team of Railroad operatives, Brotherhood Scribes, and Minutemen in. The Railroad starts the Synth uprising supported by the strike team while the Railroad and the Scribes steal as much research and data as possible. Classic divide and conquer. When Liberty Prime reaches C.I.T. and blasts a hole in the Institute's roof, the Brotherhood mostly hang back to secure the exit, with the bulk of the assault force comprised of Minutemen going underground to reinforce the strike team and the Synth rebels. The reactor is rigged to blow, the evacuation order is given, the surviving members of the SRB are arrested to be put on trial, everyone gets out of dodge, and you start the fireworks from a safe distance. The Railroad takes custody of the Syths until they can be resettled, the Brotherhood is given the bulk of whatever tech research the strike team recovers, Liberty Prime is reprogrammed to require authorization from the heads of all three factions to operate within the Commonwealth as an act of good faith, and all three factions are given roles in the new CPG. The Minutemen are the leading faction, covering local defense and maintaining trade roads like a police force. They keep the trade routes clear of raiders and hostile creatures, set up a coordinated trade network for scavengers and farmers, devise standard operating procedures for things like prospecting, scavenging, treasure hunting, and the like; The Railroad act as an intelligence agency and handles Synth affairs for the CPG. They gain Spectacle Island as their own settlement, safe house, and operations center, while there would also be a manufacturing plant designed to supply the factions and the Commonwealth with weapons, armor, ammunition, and equipment; And the Brotherhood of Steel are kept as a hired mercenary force, allowed to conduct their tech salvage missions and given a stipend from the CPG in return for aiding the Minutemen in clearing out raiders, super mutants, and hostile wildlife, so long as they agree to let free Synths and sentient Ghouls be, and to allow the people of the Commonwealth to keep the less dangerous tech they need to rebuild. Recovered intel and information would be shared collectively with the other factions, and they would be called in to safely recover and/or deal with technology that is too dangerous for common people, can't be used without a proper industrial infrastructure, or just so weird and outside context that the Brotherhood have the only people who can make sense of it. In addition, The other factions would use their resources to help the Brotherhood look for a new source of coolant for the Prydwin, or perhaps a more efficient way to keep it's reactors cooled. There would be joint operations and campaigns for the three factions, such as retaking Quincy and finally shutting down the Gunners for good, wiping out the raiders of Nuka-World, clearing out all hostile bands of Super Mutants from Boston, ect. For the Gunners example, the Railroad could infiltrate the group if they haven't already, relay information about where all Gunner strongholds are and what kind of forces they possess, sabotage their communications network, assassinate key officers, exacerbate rivalries, instigate mutinies, stuff like that. The Minutemen would use their network of artillery to bombard Gunner outposts and strongholds, and then work with the Brotherhood of Steel to rapidly deploy armored ground forces with vertibirds to sweep in and mop up. In addition, there would be lead-up missions for each campaign, such as getting certain people onboard, finding ans securing forward bases and logistics, white and black ops missions, stopping rogue elements from ruining your plans, ect. What do you guys think? Edit: nexbil 01 has made a series of documentary videos exploring my ideas.

I like how you distinguish Raiders and Minutemen. They're a civilian force. Part time soldiers including the general. You're a volunteer helping out. People give you Caps and resources because they believe you deserve it. You're not the government, you're not a king, or a tyrant. You are someone who helps out defending the weak to give them a chance to set up their own government and helps ally with each other to create a harmonious coalition. You create hope and lead volunteers.

The Minutemen are honestly my favorite faction. They fight for the good of EVERYONE, not a pet cause. I wish that after the Blind Betrayal quest that there was an option for Danse to covertly operate with the Minutemen. He could train the new recruits and help with anything with reconnaissance missions since he has intimate knowledge of the Commonwealth. He could benefit the Minutemen a lot and I WISH I COULD HAVE HIM JOIN THE MINUTEMEN

At the end of the day when I open up my pip boy map and look at all of the settlements that have joined the minutemen, look at the vast supply lines I’ve built up, the settlement happiness, seeing thriving settlements, I feel pride. I’m proud of how I as well as the minutemen have evolved and what I have built it up to be. Now, I cannot imagine siding with any other faction. They are truly the best hope for the commonwealth.

Oxhorn: They are the Weakest Faction in the game Me: hold on, I'll go Download We Are The Minutemen from the Nexus

We the People, to ensure the security of individual rights such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, shall organize a militia of free men and women to fight against any form of tyranny. Long live the Minutemen! Long live the Republic!

I think people are a little odd for siding with the brotherhood, railroad or institute I mean sure they're stronger and give you better rewards But morally the Minuteman are better... I think one of the main reasons why people hate the minuteman is because of "Preston" Which is weird because Preston is a pretty good guy once you get to know him

its funny how a game makes me feel more morally conflicted than some things in real life

It really sad that a lot of people find it hard to think of the concept of doing good for doing good sake. A good person helps those without asking for anything back. A good person does not need to be asked to help someone. And a good person values the lives of others. That guy who demanded that he have massive power because he is the general, that is not a good person. That's a demand of respect of authority. Those are earned in game and in real life, title means nothing if you haven't earned the respect it comes with.

"To be anywhere to defend anyone from any enemy at a minute's notice" and there, you just described the greatest asset of the minutemen. this is, by far, their greatest strength and it is one that none of the other three factions have any claim to.

I came back to this after a while. And I remember thinking: "This is annoying." But I look at it now and think: "Look at what good people can do if we all work together." I really hope the Minutemen somehow make it into fallout 5. If not them then a faction like them!

The biggest weakness i find with the minutemen is that they are utterly dependent on the leadership of the General, every time the General dies or goes astray it severely cripples if not outright destroys them as a faction.

I only have fallout 3, it sounds like the minute men are fighting the good fight. Three Dog would be proud.

Honestly, I've always been kind of sad that you can't expand the Atom Cats like you can the Minutemen. They are literally the only faction other than the Minutemen in the game that actually seems to care about anyone other than themselves. And they have technology. And art! (If you can count bad poetry or power armor paint jobs as art.) They'd have made a great alternative to the Minutemen and been a lot more entertaining while doing it. LOL Imagine if they got their own radio station! Such a waste of opportunity. I just don't know what Beth was thinking, not using them for so much more.

That's something a synth would say!

I feel like minuteman are necessary to unite the Commonwealth and then create a government, like NCR. I wouldn't want my character to be the ruler of a country, but a general is nice

I hate Railroad, Why?? I hate going into that church and not having Fast travel from inside the church.

The Brotherhood’s manpower with the Minutemen’s morals along with the Institute’s technology and the Railroad’s secrecy = Perfect faction

Now I feel justified about loving the minutemen.

I do wish you had more control as the General though. Like having a respect system would have been so good. What I mean by this is that when you get a notification saying "[Settlement] is under attack" you could be able to go into your Pip-Boy, click on that settlement and be able to link Settlements in the area to it, in doing so, all linked settlements send Minutemen to fight the battle for you. Doing this succesfully defends the settlement if you A) Have enough people moderately to well armed ready to fight and B) Have enough respect to do so. If you don't have enough respect, they won't go on your behalf. Now to earn respect you have to help out settlements, continue to personally defend settlements and give things to settlers. Like Purified water, aids, foods that aren't grown ect. You lose respect if you leave a settlement too long without defending and you don't gain any from letting other Minutemen defend the settlements. This way, you actually feel like a General, you gain respect in order to not have to drop everything to defend a settlement but you also have to act like a general in order to keep your earned respect. Plus, you're not treated like "just another Minuteman" but treated like the General you are. Get spoken to with more respect, even from settlers that aren't in one of your settlements. But I also get why they didn't do this. This would be far more appealing than any of the other factions. Well, to me, The minutemen are already more appealing than the others anyway. The Institute don't care about anything other than research and experiements, they're like the post-apocalyptic Vault-Tec. The Brotherhood are just comply or die and far too military for my tastes, just there to bleed the Commonwealth dry before moving on like a swarm of locusts. The Railroad don't care about anything other than Synths when there is much more going on than a few Synths wanting to be free. Their priorities are all out of whack and just seem to be wasting their resources on that over their fellow man. The Mnutemen are the best by far for the Commonwealth and for the world to heal. If every place had a faction like the Minutemen leading the charge, the world would be able to stand once more and become somewhat normal again, well as normal as an irradiated wasteland with giant monsters can be anyway.

I always overlooked the minutemen. Until I realized the Castle belonged to the minutemen, then I completely took that over and fortified it, needless to say I made it look awesome. And it was VERY defended.

Comparing the minute men to communists is a false equivalency. The minute men are traditional US militia in the way of the colonies. That is what it is modeled after.

This is exactly why the Minutemen are my favorite faction. They are the good guys through and through. Not only that, but they are indeed the weakest faction in the game, but the fact that you as the player has the ability to make them stronger is fascinating in my opinion.

Comparing the minutemen to communists is idiotic. The minutemen, historically, were literally local militias that were constantly ready to defend other americans. The point of the minutemen is the people defending their rights, wether it be from enemy armies, or even the government itself.

I was just about to join The Brotherhood of steel, but now, I see more honor in the minutemen.

True the minutemen dont have flying fortress and power armour and that shit but they have a fucking castle wich is like the best thing ever once you rebuild the wals

I love that the Minutemen are your own faction, leaving the player with freedom to play them how you want. One of my favourite playthroughs was as an evil minutemen faction.

Late to the comment game, but this video represents every reason why my first playthrough was Minute Men. My wife watched me play most of this game. And when I had to make the call of what faction to back, she asked my why the Minute Men. My response was, "Because they're the only ones who give a damn about the people, and dammit that's worth fighting for."

Institute: "Join us! We have toilet paper." Brotherhood of Steel: "Join us! We have cool shit." Minutemen: "Join us! We have the Castle and Artillery." Me: *Confused screaming!*

Oxhorn: Every faction mostly keeps to themselves. Brotherhood of Steel: KILL ALL THE NONHUMANS!

7:15 "He singhandedly reprioritized the Brotherhood.." *danse leans in super close* "FROM THE GROUND UP"

An addendum to my "Factions Unite" idea, there should be a post-Institute campaign to rebuild the Commonwealth into a functioning nation. Things such as helping set up better, more secure roads, or getting the railways up and running again for trade between certain major settlements. Hell, perhaps even start a shipworks in order to get water-based trade restarted. There could be a mission to clear out and demolish a section of Boston set up a new "scavenging and processing hub" somewhere between Diamond City, Goodneighbor, and Bunker Hill. Something of a massive warehouse, collection center, chop shop, recycling and disassembly plant, and distribution center for all the salvage and scavenging operations in the Commonwealth. A place to take junk and spare weapons and armor to have it categorized, stripped, disassembled, restored, repaired, repackaged, or broken down into spare parts and components. It could then send weekly inventory manifests or catalogs to all the settlements and their stores so they can order what they need or want with the next caravans. It would employ hundreds of people from the Big Three Boston settlements, and would be the major component supplier for factory settlements like Spectacle Island. Similar to the previous idea, setting up a center to better manage food distribution int the Commonwealth, and also use factories to manufacture pre-war food items and drinks, like Sugar Bombs cereal, CRAM, and Nuka-Cola. Perhaps a major quest for it would be to look for materials to build a large refrigeration unit, so that meat and milk can be stored for longer periods and possibly even produce ice blocks to sell to nearby settlements. The place would also be where farmers can go to buy crop seeds, taken from processed produce. And finally, a center to act as a Radioactive Material reprocessing center. Staffed mainly by ghouls, friendly and intelligent super mutants, robots, and humans in _heavily_ shielded power armor, their operation would be to scour the Commonwealth for places where Mass Fusion illegally dumped barrels of toxic waste, and then after securing and sealing the barrels, transport them back to the facility to reprocess the waste into usable ingots for settlements that require something nuclear powered. The facility would have to be lead shielded and kept at a safe distance from the other settlements, obviously. The super mutants would be there for the heavy lifting and defense, the ghouls for the delicate work and processing, and the humans to handle sales and distribution. In addition, a side operation would be to plant sunflowers at every salvage site, since sunflowers are excellent at leaching radioactive contamination out of the soil. Robots like Mr. Handy would handle the sunflower planting, and then return once the flowers are full grown to harvest them for safe disposal, and possibly more cycles of planting depending on how severe the contamination is. Your thoughts?

As much as I love the Minutemen, I still feel like they should have had to team up with the Railroad to actually take down the institute. Neither faction seems to either have the technology (Minutemen) or the manpower (Railroad) to do it on their own. Another interesting option could be for them to work with the Brotherhood. From there, do they end up as a puppet or do they end up fighting a more traditional war?

I've just finished watching all of your base game faction evil/good videos. They're great, you present well researched, well reasoned and balanced arguments for and against each faction. I must thank you for changing my perspective on the Minutemen. I recently went back to an old save where I was trying to get the "best" ending(The one with three factions still alive at the end) and I was going through the motions of playing each factions bit. I'm on the final stretch ready for the nuclear option, but after watching this video I'm going back to all of my settlements, which I made just functional, and rebuild the Commonwealth properly.

I like comparing the Minutemen to the WW2 era Finnish armed forces. True, Finland had a standing army since its independence in 1917 and even had highly trained officers like Marshal Mannerheim in the leadership positions, but during the war most of its ranks were composed of farmers, hunters, loggers, most of them hadn't even had proper training: They depended entirely on the Finnish way of life for agrarians; being that they knew the terrain and how to use it, they had experience with firearms from hunting being a common means to support one's self and overall just had good common sense (the Finnish term for that translates to agrarian or countryside sense). And this army managed to hold back the Soviet Union from splitting the country in half in the Winter War and got pretty close to Moscow during the Continuation War.

i think you should be able to order members of the minutemen, like a general would do. Or create a small squad of minutemen members to go defend or clear out a dungeon or enemies.

*Settlement leaves* Me: *loads Fatman* Looks like I'm starting over...

When it comes to the General rank feeling underpowered, I think something fairly simple, like making those radiant quests and random attacks semi-optional, would go a long way. Include the option to either show up in person and handle the baddies yourself OR order squad(s) to intercept the enemy without you for a hike in the odds of winning the dice roll, and also you forfeit most of the caps and XP. The bigger the Minutemen, the greater the boost to their odds of success when intercepting. Or something.

Agreed 100%. My minutemen play throughs are longer than others, and I feel much more satisfied at the end, knowing that all that work will be worth it.

My only real gripe with the Minutemen is more of a game limitation, or lack of imagination/time on Bethesda's part. As you get more settlements, more people, more resources to help others, especially once you retake the Castle, you should be able to do things like "I'm not gonna get there quickly, send a squad to help. I'll get there as soon as I can" or something to that effect. Even if it's only in game effect is extending the timer until you can get there yourself. The We Are the Minutemen mod gets a lot closer to what I wanted vanilla to be, where your hard work gets put into giving them better weapons and armor, vertibirds, power armor, etc, to make them more effective. You can train Minutemen. I would spend *hours* teaching new recruits or helping jaded vets or the like. When you have all or most settlements, why not adapt radiant quests to be more of a "this is a bigger problem than our citizen soldiers can handle themselves" flavor to represent the Minutemen growing as a faction and your responsibilities changing as you go from their only real asset to the head of a mobile and versatile organization? I would have spent so much time just running radiant quests.

I may be a year late watching this video, but I can't help but drop my own comment here. I must say that in my personal opinion, the Minutemen are my favorite faction. I invest so much time and energy in crafting my settlements, protecting them, making them happy. I get a sense of accomplishment after i'm done building, and seeing the defenses in action defending against raiders or super mutants. At the end of the day, I don't really get that feeling from any other faction. The Railroad is fun but in the end i'm just another agent. The Brotherhood of Steel has their tech, but in the end I feel like i'm just a soldier. Let's not forget about the institute, and how I feel like i'm betraying to commonwealth. With the Minutemen, I really feel like I am contributing and making a difference to each and every individual settlers life. And how without the hard work of the Minutemen as a whole, they wouldn't have their homes, or feel safe. That's just my opinion though, wanted to share it.

Militarized Minutemen mod: *"I can fix that"*

“The minutemen are the weakest faction” Me: *laughs in We Are The Minutemen*

I like to imagine that in the time the Fallout TV show takes place, the minutemen have made a big name for themselves again like how they once did before the fall of Quincy, being a formidable faction against any raider, with a lot of power, and having as much as the Brotherhood of Steel, and thanks to The Sole survivor, would spread their ranks to other U.S states than The Commonwealth

Sounds like the NCR of the east, thats why I like them.

If you have the militarised Minutemen mod the minute men in my opinion are one of the stronger factions stronger than the railroad at least

The Minutemen is an awesome faction. I like their style and Preston Garvey is a cool character. I know he’s buggy but still he has a great attitude. Plus I love how the final mission requires you to fully customize the castle. That is an awesome idea because your turrets can take down the institute forces very quickly. In my opinion settlement building was the best part of Fallout 4. However I really do wish that Bethesda added a mission where you can retake Quincy and I wish you were able to recruit the USS Constitution robots. Maybe they could’ve parked the ship right next to the castle and they could’ve use their cannons to help you in the final battle. That would’ve been awesome!! 😎👍🏼

“You work, you eat. Simple as that.” -Random settlers. That’s literally the opposite of communism, lol.

I would have loved of been able to turn the raiders at Nuka-World on each other and after freeing it, you could go to Garvy and he'd send some Minutemen to help out, then after a day or so away from the area, traders and other visitors are roaming the area and the raider decor was removed. Personally, I like the Minutemen and I immediately focused on building up the settlements, that being said, I came to the conclusion or felt that if I did, I would see more and more patrols of Minutemen and I did. However, I think it is more accurate to say that they're willing to spare any and all sentient life that is able to work as a community and is willing to do what is right.

there's a reason why some of my favorite factions include the minutemen, NCR, Responders, Followers of the Apocalypse, etc. it's because they feel real like yeah, the brotherhood with there power armor, or the institute with they're robots are always cool, but if there were ever to be a REAL Apocalypse like we see in-game, factions like the minutemen feel the most likely to pop up in real life. now this doesn't mean I like my fallouts to be super realistic, I just tend to appreciate the factions that feel more real, that's just my feelings tho.

This totally changed my view on the Minutemen. Time for a whole new play through!

If i had to join a faction it would be the minutemen. They have the same ideas i have.

Preston usually tries my patience but damn it that Quincy Massacre story pulled at my heartstrings! 😢

I'm gonna watch this video and take a shot of vodka every time he says "minutemen"

When I hear the term "Minutemen," I feel pride, honor, justice, and loyalty. As part of a militia myself, I see how bad society can be when in ruins. The only people who can understand the ones in troubled times are those that have been there to experience it. The Commonwealth is constantly bombarded by not just the enemies of the people. It is also bombarded by those who wish to rule it. The Minutemen fight for those that can't fight for themselves. The countless settlers, farmers, doctors, and families are torn down by those who wish to exploit their resources. The Minutemen ask for nothing in return for the services they do. Maybe some of our governments can learn a thing or two from the people they lead. Who wants to live in shambles where there is no hope or reason to fight? Nobody wants to be killed or raped or stolen from. We live in a world where political status and rank in the social hierarchy rule the people. I do not fear for my life on saying the truth for I know that whoever wishes to kill me, kills not just their own flesh and blood, but a man of honor and freedom. They can come at us with the force of an army but they will never stop the fight for freedom, honor, and justice. This world needs more than just a freedom fighter. They need Minutemen. Give us Liberty or Give us Death.