[DirectorTsaarx]

By "near completion", I assume you mean ending next turn. That does NOT mean he has spent the full cost of a Counter Intel II project. It ONLY means he has spent enough to counter an Intel operation. Which could be as little as 4000 points. (Assuming that the setting in "Settings.txt" that gives Counter-Intel a 20% bonus against Intel is working). 3 * 4000 is only 12,000; his entire output at this time.

Now, Partners share Intel points. So he could be getting 20% of 50k, which is 10k; giving him 22,000 points per turn to spend on Counter-Intel. Still not quite enough (even with a bonus for CI vs. I) to negate all your attacks. Especially if you complete more than 3 ops per turn, and all are being countered. It is possible (though yet to be verified by anyone) that multiples of the same project are treated as one project; i.e., three Crew Insurrections against the same empire MIGHT be blocked by a single CI op. I forget where we discussed that idea, but you might want to pursue it; if that IS the case, MM needs to fix it.

Finally, IIRC, there's a chance for Intel projects to fail on their own. Particularly if you target a specific item (ship/planet) rather than "any ship/planet" in the target empire.

BTW - it took me a while to get Intel to work on one of the AI opponents; so it works in some cases. Just not certain how many cases or how well...