Melee training tactics for gals?

[Tamren]

I could use some tips on how to powerlevel melee skills. Training firing is very easy because you just get a rapid fire weapon, 11 hits and you're done (damage not required). Throwing is also easy with bows, whips, firecrackers etc. But I'm finding melee hard to train because it is simply too lethal. A gal with 80 strength can easily knock out most enemies in one hit with a good damage roll, meaning you only get 1 xp per target unless you revive them several times as a punching bag, and that only works a few times before the compounding HP damage finishes them off.

So far the best tactics I could figure out are:

1. Find an enemy with body armour, stun and disarm, then revive with water and repeatedly punch from the front.
2. Take wrestling armour or quarterstaves into zombie missions and thump downed zombies to death, especially the fat ones.

For races other than gals melee training is a lot easier because punches don't deal anywhere near as much damage and catgirls have their claw attack which is very fast and easily defeated by light armour. It's only gals that are a problem for me because of lethality and I struggle to get more than 1 melee skill per mission at times.

[Delian]

Gals have high strength, but they don't have high reactions. Which means Stun Baton is good for melee training, assuming you have enough Canteens with you hehe. Keep reviving the punching bag! Oh, the first knockout should still be with Bare Hands or Kung-fu however, for the Wrestler Commendation. Did I mention Kung-fu? It's less lethal than Bare Hands.

If the enemy has high enough armor and cutting resistance, then Ripper can train you very fast.

[Tamren]

Hmm, I've been using stun batons since the start since they are the safest non-lethal option I have and nicely portable (unlike the cattle prods). But I've been focusing on ranged training first by leaving the noobs in the backline and letting them take potshots at anything that moves. That is mostly meant to train their basic stats but it also increases reactions just as much.

I may have to reverse the normal order of training and try to do melee first, before their other stats increase too much.

[Delian]

Well, at the start you do need to rush the firing and reactions training of a couple of gals so they can serve as pilots. But other than that, I find that maxing out melee first works better in the early game. At least if you're an expert at doing night missions. I should note that certain early game enemies, like Highwaymen or Church Priests have enough armor and stun resist to take a substantial amount of Domestic Shotgun stun slugs, so they're easy to max firing training on. And of course, Necropirates are just great for training overall.

Heh, there's one training strategy that involves stacking 11 stunned enemies on one tile, and hitting them with Grenade Launcher /Smoke slug, and Fire Extinguisher, to max out your firing and throwing, all while doing 0 hp damage. The problem is, /Smoke slugs aren't available early game and fire extinguisher isn't particularly portable.

[Tamren]

For firing training I use assault shotguns with rubber shot. Same idea as domestic shotguns but you get 16 shots.

For throwing training I use whips or firecrackers. Each stack of firecrackers counts as five separate attacks if you throw the whole thing, so if you stack three bodies you can max throwing xp in a single turn. It's important to throw the crackers beside the target and not on it or else it will deal much more damage and also set them on fire.

[Tamren]

If the enemy has high enough armor and cutting resistance, then Ripper can train you very fast.

I see why you recommended rippers having just unlocked them for the first time. Three attacks per swing, lots of swings per turn, 30 cutting damage with no power bonus from skills. As absurd as it sounds this may be the least lethal weapon my gals have against heavy armour. It's not an electric weapon so it doesn't bypass armour, cutting resist is the most common/strongest from what I've seen, and again no power bonus from skills so it doesn't scale to superhuman levels.

[Delian]

Yeah, unfortunately that's about it for training melee. Hands, Stun Baton, Ripper. Other options are either more lethal, or slower. Well, the Golden Codex has an advantage with Officer's Baton which deals 0 hp damage hehe.