[Baron Munchausen]

Well, I'm not familiar with the details of the internal formula. All I have is the terse descriptions/hint given to the beta testers with each revision and experience from playing some games. You're right, this badly needs to be documented. I really don't know if it's "one for one" or if one counter-intel can prevent more than one attack. But if so, there's a limit because even running many counter-intel operations simultaneously I've still been successfully hit by various operations.

Remember, though, that the level of the counter-intel is judged against the level of the attack. So, there is no default counter-intel against Puppet Political Parties. To stop that, you need to either use "Intelligence Sabotage" (which is quite a bit cheaper than counter-intel now that it's been changed) or just go out and pound the snot out of the offending empire -- if you can. Another solution with the full Version is to edit the Intel Operations file to add Counter-intel level 4, which would then be able to stop even Puppet Political Parties.