Training Marines ?

[Bill Huntington]

I used to train my marines a certain way. First I'd get them close in all three categories, then I'd train them up to 100. It takes a looong time. Most games they'd still be in training when I decided to restart.

I like AP because they make it easy to recall marines and still give you credit for some training; not partial credit, but if you were doing a 'normal', you could get credit for one or two levels instead of three if you completed.

Now I want to board Terran ships so I want to get to 100 in mechanical, to get past those 'thick' hulls. A few good hackers are enough. I figure Engineering is a bonus, since you can always repair a ship once you have it. So my goal is to get a marine to 100 in Mechanical, then a few to 100 in Hacking, then spend any extra time training Engineering. I usually train them 'normal', not 'quick', so I don't have too much to do. When they're close to 100, then I do 'quick.

How do pilots train their marines? Do you have a standard method, or do you adjust for different things? Which things?

[Mahadev]

I train them to 3 or 4 star in each skill then I board pirate ships. All the surviving marines which have more then three stars in fighting skill I put aside into a dedicated craft. Once I got a few I train them to maximum skill in the marine training stations then I hunt Xenon ships. I know there are probably more cost effective ways to do it but at the it is only a game and I like playing it and I am not too worried how much money I make or loose.

I have got 103 marines in total at various stages. One boarding frigate, one phantom where they live and and a Ocelot for search and rescue in case they end up in space.

I also use a whole Blast claw Wing for mopping up cargo that has been jettison by enemies after or before being destroyed. Because they have front and back turrets if they are in are wing they fill the surrounding space with crossfire. Very nice to watch.

[Greenhorn]

Hi Bill , In AP i use 3 stars in every skill,launching 5 marines at the same time,but failed everytime boarding a otas tm ship and argon tm,.Marines either die, or sometimes bail, even sometimes boarding ship explodes.i guess ap wAS meant for your marines, tobe 4 stars in every 3 skills,to be effective, and high fighting skill,.ill never do boarding with 3 star marines again in 3 skills,a lesson learned.and expensive long time training.Note: engineering has to be (( high )) 4 stars,on marine or else ship will sometimes explode while your boarding marines fighting, that ive notice .I Train at military outpost Stations of common wealth races and some at EQ docks,But Note; you cant train marines at (( terran military base )) stations, ive notice.Sorry for my spelling.bye.

[Jimmy C]

Here's how I do it in AP.

1. Buy or otherwise get, nine marines. 20 if you're starting late and Frigates are already showing up on combat missions.
2. Take combat missions constantly. Specifically so that you can capture ships.
3. Take and keep any skilled marines (by whatever standards you consider "skilled") that are ejected by your capture target. I suggest marines with enough stats in all areas to halve training time and cost.
4. As your marines reach 100 fight skill, put them into training until they max out on all skills.
5. Replace marines sent into training with new skilled marines that you captured on missions.

In my current game, it took six game days for me to get 20 maxed marines. I think the first ones completed their training a day or two before that.
Right now, I'm in a complicated situation. I can get frigates on missions, but not always. So I have to have a force of 20 for capturing frigates and one of 9 for corvettes. In two or three more ranks, I won't have to deal with M6s anymore.

[Earth Ultimatum IV.]

Iam some kind of a perfectionist when it comes to marine training, and it worked quite well.

[Jimmy C]

Meh, I had 30 like that in my last game.
30 TPs filled up like that, I mean.

[Honved]

Repairs cost, so I train ENG skill up to at least 50 for all new recruits.

Any marine with higher than 40 combat skill gets either Mechanical or Hacking up to around 60-80, with a few below 40 also getting some Mechanical training. I prefer to have half my marines with Mechanical skill, so the odds of having 2 decent ones able to cut through the hill is fairly high.

You only need 2 surviving Hackers at the end, so I don't need more than a few in each boarding operation.

Once they've participated in an op or two, and have at least 4 stars in combat, I max out Engineering and either Mechanical or Hacking. Only around 10% of them end up with all skills at maximum. No point in paying for something you don't need.

I had one game where I checked at least 8 Military Bases and Marine Training Barracks, and couldn't find 5 marines with combat skills over 40. THAT was miserable.

[Sabrina Bergin]

Try the war zones;

No kidding you get a big battle going and quite often you'll find a bunch of marines floating around once their ship gets squashed. I've collected nearly fifty so far all in 4-5 star range in everything. I'm pretty sure this is an exploit but it's a nice one. Give them some engineering skills and you can just sit back and enjoy the clink as they capture stuff for you. ATM I'm just cycling through them to get them all up to Elite status.

[pref]

Terran ships are fine with 4* fighters. So i train them on CW ships until 4* then move on to terran space. Usually by then i have a few 5* ones as well.

I only buy 3* fighters to begin with, otherwise any training time spent could be lost during boarding. CW ships can be taken at 3* safely. Then i train a few 5* hackers (with strong fight skills, so they have a low chance to die), and all has to have at least 3* mechanical, plus near 100 engineering.
You can lower that a bit perhaps, my targets are usually M7s and up.

I buy marines as soon as i have a few 100k extra cash, visit each outpost i can and take the 3* fighters.
Once i have more cash, i buy all the worst marines and dump them to space, so there is a higher chance that a 3* will show up in stock next.

[Cursed Ghost]

here is what I do in ap

first I'll scout about conflict sectors and see if there are any troops floating in space I've seen this happen in Grand Exchange, Zyarth's Dominion and also in the war sectors but it is possibly to have this happen else where its just more common in sectors where combat occurs an a regular bases

finding free troops will require a bit of luck but its worth it because those free troops usually have like 3 stars in everything which makes training much easer faster and cost much less then I will simply drop them off for training and wait till they have 100 in hull cutting hacking and engineering then I will go pilfer some easy targets to get there combat skills up at which point I can take any ship that takes my fancy regardless or whether they have internal defences/troops on-board or not

the two exceptions to this are terran capitals if they have hull polarization devices they are not boardable even with boarding pods and a 100 hull cutting there hulls are simply to strong so the hull polarization device must be removed first before you will be able to board the ship and Xenon ships its possible to take them with a single squad of 21 that are at 100 in everything but you will sustain casualties and there is no getting around that because Xenon ships have what amounts to a full squad of trained troops on board that cant be removed making then some of the hardest targets in the game to take.

if you already have some troops with decent skill then you can board ships that have troops on board this will make the boarding tougher but if you make it to the core without getting wiped out then your targets troops will be ejected in to space where they can be collected this is a second way you can get some experienced troops for free pirate Carrack are good for this usually they will only have like 3 or 4 decent troops and the rest will be noobs which are no match for a full squad of 21 commandos that are at 100 in everything even if they do have internal defences then all you need do is pick them up train up the decent ones and enslave and sell off the noobs

these 2 method are how I have gotten most of my troops I only bought 9 troops that had 3 starts in fighting to start with and then just trained them up the rest are troopers that I have gotten for free from the computer and right now I have about 125 commandos around 100 of which are all at 100 in everything the other 25 are currently training

with regards to the time it takes to train troops there really isn't anything you can do about it you will simply have to be patient its irritating I know

<edit>

also please note boarding from a M7M is much easer and much faster don't bother with space walking if you cant afford an M7M then try looking round the war sectors you might find an unescorted Sirokos which shouldn't be to tough to space walk board since the Sirokos can only fire boarding pods

failing that simply keep your eyes open as you fly about the universe you might find an empty/unescorted M7M which you can space walk board taking you first M7M will be the 1 and only time you should ever space walk board ships

of course its easer to just buy an m7m normally ill just go round capping other smaller ships with PBEs and then selling them till I have enough to buy and outfit a Sirokos or you can do stock market manipulation but this feels a little to much like cheating for my tastes but it is a good thing to do right at the start of the game when you have nothing and you need like 500,000 credits seed money to get you started at which point you can outfit a couple or trade ship and get a couple of UTs going or maybe an easy to run factory like an ore mine

[RainerPrem]

Hi,

of course its easer to just buy an m7m normally ill just go round capping other smaller ships with PBEs and then selling them till I have enough to buy and outfit a Sirokos or you can do stock market manipulation but this feels a little to much like cheating for my tastes but it is a good thing to do right at the start of the game when you have nothing and you need like 500,000 credits seed money to get you started at which point you can outfit a couple or trade ship and get a couple of UTs going or maybe an easy to run factory like an ore mine

The by far cheapest M7M is the Yaki Senshi for less than 30mi. Not too fast, but with a decent cargo space. Going into Yaki space and doing missions for them is quickly giving you enough rep. Then drop a weed/booze complex in, and money comes rolling in.

cu
Rainer

[Jimmy C]

But I feel the M7M most suitable for conducting boarding operations is the Cobra. A fully tuned Cobra is faster than some frigates you might encounter on combat missions, as opposed to none for the other M7Ms. And a Sirokos isn't going to be boarding anyone by itself.

[MarvinTheMartian]

I'm addicted to buying Marines, I have a TP parked in every Military Outpost that has them and occasionally trawl through the list checking out any Marine costing more than 300k and usually they have 70+ fight skill in which case I can't say no.

As for training, it's painful at the beginning of the game as I like to train them fully, only because they don't gain any skills other than fight during boarding (which I think should happen) even though they probably don't need it. I currently have 49 Marine's 400/400 another 41 fully trained requiring some fight experience, 30 more in training plus a few randoms from boarding that I'll throw at an I shortly. For organisation I have an Ozias docked at the MO in Ceo's Sprite (where I do all my training) with 4 TPs docked to it to sort them by fight skill.

With M7Ms I usually end up with a Sirokos although not finding I need it as much in AP (except for the upcoming I attempt) but these days using a Kraken that someone left lying around. The Kraken is much better than I thought it would be, slower than the Cobra but not by much and although it doesn't have gun turrets for protection they only work if you're being attacked from behind and this is where the I use the Kraken's extra turrets with commands like attack fighters which is very effective. I also enjoy the additional 1,500 cargo that can't be overlooked. If I was buying an M7M, though, it would be the Cobra, for the extra 14m/s.

[Jimmy C]

I'm addicted to buying Marines, I have a TP parked in every Military Outpost that has them and occasionally trawl through the list checking out any Marine costing more than 300k and usually they have 70+ fight skill in which case I can't say no.

You're wasting your money. Like I said, you only ever need to buy 20 marines, tops. Combat missions will provide you with every other marine you will ever need. Selling ships captured from combat missions will cover all the costs of the missiles expended and training the newly acquired marines.

[MarvinTheMartian]

You're wasting your money.

I know it's my addiction, I see a marine costing 350k Cr and I have to fly over there immediately, no matter what I'm doing, and buy 'em up! In TC it was worse as I would buy all the sub 70 fight skill Marines and sell them with the TP leaving only the good ones and to force the creation of more so I could go back and remove the bad one's again until there were only good fighters left - just in case I ran out of the 80 odd elite Marines I had sitting in TPs in an Aran.

On a related subject, is it just me or are the Marine Training Barracks and Rehabilitation Facilities pointless? I've yet to come across a single Marine with better than 2* in fighting, you'd have though with the 2x capacity of a Military Outpost there'd be a better chance of a high skilled fighter, but no. Is it just that there are fewer of them skewing my perception?

[Joe McCracken]

is it just me or are the Marine Training Barracks and Rehabilitation Facilities pointless?

Maybe for how you play....

but for me.... I buy any Marine with 2* in fighting. I usually end up with 3-4 hundred marines by the time I start a new game. Yeah, I lose a few here and there, but I don't reload if I do. It's how I play. I figure it's part of the game to lose once in a while.

I for one am glad that there are different options to get marines.

[Honved]

On a related subject, is it just me or are the Marine Training Barracks and Rehabilitation Facilities pointless?

Rehabilitation facilities are anything but pointless. How else are you going to get a full assault party of Boron marines?

The Marine Training Barracks have a much larger selection than the more numerous Military Bases.

I think I need to sell a couple of TPs full of marines, because I'm out of even remotely passable marines in my game. I quickly bought up all of the marines I could find with combat skills over 40, which gave me enough for one decent group (just shy of 20). Then I added another 20 marines in the 30-40 skill range, and even those are getting scarce.

I'm not investing the necessary Engineering training in any marines below 30 skill, because their odds of dying are too high compared to the amount spent, and sending them in without the training will cost a lot more in repairs. Filling up a basic TP with low-quality (and dirt cheap) marines and selling it to recoup the investment sounds like a gamey but viable means of culling the herd.

[Jimmy C]

For me, training is simple.
I look at their highest stat and train all skills accordingly:

Below 50, Advanced.
Below 80, Normal.
Above 80, Quick.

No fuss, takes only a second per marine.