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Training Marines

I noticed it in the mid-game in AP when I had got the Acinonyx. They make it real easy to do boarding on TMs. When we talked about boarding training, most of the advice was to ambush TLs, hire and ambush a TL, or board the occasional M7M or M7 from a Return Mission. I did some of those but my usual was boarding Arenas and Casinos. No extra penalty because they were civilian and no additional problems because they weren't armed.

Now I'm starting boarding training in the early hours on Day One of a game, as soon as I can buy or steal an M7M. I just carry 8 marines and target TMs. There's so many TMs, and they're in Hatikvah and other pirate areas. Sometimes it was hard to find an Arena, and they're usually in Core sector. And the local police attacked your Satellites at least. The Boa is my TM of choice. Now I don't have to wait for high Split rep to get one or two. The $100 k reward for selling a damaged TM isn't much but you're not doing it for the money. That comes later when you're taking all the M2s and M1s that you want. Just 15 marines trained to 100, sometimes less.

Any other recommendations for training your marines?

Spacewalk boarding of TMs and M6s from the playership. Far more varied and enjoyable gameplay value than repeated identical M7M pod launches, in my opinion at least. I agree absolutely that there are more risks going down that route, but I quite like that element of gameplay too.

Only other options are M6s from return abandoned ship missions and stealing ships from the Yaki.

Remember you can get near perfect marines from RR Minotaurs launching at terran ships in Circle of Labour and Omicron Lyrae if you use mosquito missile defence to intercept the boarding pods.