Intel -- Do you play with it on or off?

[Artaud]

Intel has always been difficult for me to get right. I never pay much attention to it until my enemies are pounding me with sabotage, stirring unrest on my planets and stealing my resources.

I wonder if anybody out there ever plays with intel off. If so, does that make the game too easy?

Right now I'm playing the Star Trek Mod 1.97 and getting so badly handled that I might just surrender (I never just delete a game!) and start over with intel off.

I'm holding my own in the space battles, but intel attacks are ravaging my Federation. I keep building more and more security center IIs, but the Caspian Empire has 180K intel points to my 60K, and my counter-intel efforts are not going well. Things look hopeless.

EVERY other empire is at war with me, even though I'm ranked 9th. None of the AI empires is at war with any of the other AI empires, which seems very odd but...