[Arkcon]

See, I dunno, I never had such a big problem with intel, at least against the A.I. Here's my thoughts:

1). You must have more intel points than your enemies. This is simple. Just like you have to have more research points, and minerals mined than your enemy, its as simple as that. (Now people are saying "Well, not so simple, with targeted research and carefully maintenance reduction you can ...blah blah blah ...listen, if your're going toe to toe with someone, you need more, thats it.)

2). To defend yourself, you spend points on the defense projects. I fill all 12 slots. You can put them on share points, check every turn until they're about to finish, then switch to not shared. That way, they;ll have points to use in your defense when an opponent completes a project.

3). When the projects start defending you, see how many go at once. Maybe 3 or 4? Great, that how many attacks are likely comeing your way. Now you can turn on a couple of offensive projects. Put them at the top of the queue.

4). When you go mega-evil, or play against humans, and they gang up on you with a total more than 12 offensive projects, you're screwed. Plain and simple. Something is going to hit. You'll need to use wave motion gun based counter-intel, in that case.