I've put in nearly 60+ hours into the game now & barely touched the main questline, I do however have quite a few companions in Codsworth, Dogmeat, Garvey, Piper, Valentine, Strong & Danse.

I used Codsworth for a while because I liked his sense of humour, did not get on with Garvey because he was giving me too many new settlement quests & accuracy was poor with his laser rifle. Valentine is good but you can't give him any armour to equip, he will only wear his detective outfit. Strong is a Super Mutant & I've not really used him at all. Danse I hate, in fact the Brotherhood of Steel seem like real twats in this game. I've stuck with Piper for now & given her my combat rifle & old combat armour. Also she seems to be built like a Terminator who can survive explosions.

I've moved my home base & all companions to Red Rocket to limit the amount of time I spend on settlements having to deal with settler related issues. I'd rather spend my time exploring the wasteland.

I've done quite a few quests now & have switched out my companion to use Preston Garvey. I've made a quick video to show the combat against a group of raiders,

I like the way the enemies now flank you but with a high perception & agility my accuracy on the weapon is very good so I very rarely tend to miss any shots. I always use vats to attack, I'm not playing it like a FPS game but an RPG & like decide which part of the enemy to attack. For raiders I tend to go for head & on ghouls legs to slow them down.

Settlement building & management can become a bit of chore so I've toned that part of the game down a bit to focus on exploring the wasteland & completing quests.

I will do a video shortly showing the two houses I have built in Sanctuary for the settlers & myself.