More good info. Thanks!
Something you said got me thinking, "Also of note, Infantry & Militia on Planets do NOT gain experience (from my testing)
but my Troops sitting around in their tin can transports DO gain experience!! ".
I found this in the manual.pdf file in Chapter 8:
All troops, both ground and shipboard, start out as green rookies. For
experience purposes, they're considered Recruits (unless they're in
service with a race that has the Warlord characteristic). As time goes by
and these Marines take part in battles, their experience level rises. Each
turn in space counts for 1 experience point, and every enemy ship
destroyed or captured in combat adds 2 more. When the crew gains
sufficient experience, they advance to the next rank and their ship gains
combat bonuses, as follows.
Points Level Ship Attack Ship Defense
Boarding iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
0 Recruit Normal Normal
Normal
50 Regular +15 +15
+5
150 Veteran +30 +30
+10
500 Elite +50 +50
+15
* Ultra-Elite +75 +75
+20
* This level is only attainable by crews in the service of a Warlord race.
As to why these attack and defense bonuses are important, refer to the
Combat section.
I didn't realize marines had experience levels like ship crews.
On many occasions I played a telepathic race and wasn't really concerned about G.C.
Of course, I saw my ship experience levels go up, but, I figured that was all there was too it.
I know ship crews gain experience from Space Academys, so,
would marines in troop transports too?
Now, I have to check my Troop Transports the next time I load up a saved game to see where it tells us the Troops xp level. It would be nice if each ship's crew xp were displayed in the ship info screen. We could make the judgement call, to wait a few more turns to launch a fleet, if our crew was about to gain a level.