I'm fairly new to EE, played a few games this year and I think I understand most things except this just happened:

I'm playing in the A tourament server. Someone has just attacked me 9 times without declaring war, plus a couple of offensive spy operations, yet GDI won't let me attack them back.

In fact I can't even do a normal vanilla "Spy" operation against them, it says GDI won't allow without first declaring war.

The other players networth is currently a bit less than 2x my networth.
Yes I am sure I am trying to spy/attack the right player....
Yes I am just trying to "Spy" not any other offensive spy operation.... since when do you need to declare war to spy?

I'm in A and can see the attacks, so I can identify both countries involved.

The other player's NW is currently a bit *MORE* than 2x your NW, that's why you cannot attempt a spy op. GDI affects both military and spy operations.

When the other player attacked you, he was less than 2x your NW. He then built his land, acquired military, whatever, to gain NW to more than 2x your NW, outside of GDI range.

With the current NW's of both countries, you would have to gain about 15k NW to be within GDI range and attempt an op. Of course, that would put you back within his range too.

He could also drop NW by selling off some tech or military and get back into GDI range.

Thanks for your answer.
The other country is now more than twice my networth, perhaps I mis-calculated this in my previous post (it was just before I went to sleep) however I wouldn't normally make such a simple mistake. Regardless I am still confused.

I have games on 2 other servers. Trying to spy on a coutry > 2x my networth with both of us in GDI gives these results:

Express: Success. (Target is > 3x my networth)
Primary: Success.

If I try to spy on the leader in the Primary server (> 4x my networth) I get:
"Your forces will not spy on such a large opponent!"

But trying to spy the guy who just attacked me 9 times in the Tournament game gives me:
"GDI authority will not let you perform this operation without declaring war!"

The spy page states "The chance of success is related to both you and your targets ratio of Spies to Acres of Land", however it is unknown if this is the criteria for deciding if your spys will attempt an operation.

*All just normal vanilla "Spy" operations - not offensive

SO:
Why can I not attack back?
Why can I not spy?
Why did the other player not have to declare war before he attacked?
Why is the GDI still blocking me when the other player has already sent multiple attacks and offensive spy-ops at me?

gdi works differently on the different servers - there are clues on the join gdi page on each server and on the details page for each server on the portal page, but to my knowledge there is no comprehensive source that outlines the differences on each server, the rationale or motivation for these differences, their implications for game play or the similar but different limitations placed by "humanitarions" -- and not all of what is posted is accurate or uptodate -- you just have to learn by asking and trying

for tourney only:

SO:
Why can I not attack back?

the 2x limits are by nw at the moment you attempt the attack or the op

Why can I not spy?

same as above

Why did the other player not have to declare war before he attacked?

he was within the 2x limit when he did what he did

Why is the GDI still blocking me when the other player has already sent multiple attacks and offensive spy-ops at me?

the past is meaningless when the 2x limit is considered --- on tourney, the past is almost always meaningless as there are never any restrictions on the attacks or spyops you use except for the end of set rule about not being able to attack a player in the last hours that has not attacked you at least twice

manipulating your nw to use the gdi 2x limit to your advantage is just part of the tactics of tourney as it is played today

and if my nfo here isn't correct, i hope someone else will correct it

good luck!

OK.

Thanks to both Paradox and DancingBear for taking the time to explain this. I think the differences between the servers was what was confusing me the most.

For what it's worth I did first check that they were all reporting the save Revision/Major Change Set under 'details' first. I think a brief rundown of the server GDI rules here might be a useful thing.

Primary - Express GDI is 4x humanitarians is 8x also GDI protects from harmful ops/attacks
every other server GDI is 2x and humanitarians is 12x and GDI protects from no ops/attacks

don't feel too bad -- everyone trips up on the gdi stuff -- the divergences mostly came about when gdi rules were tweaked over the years in an attempt to curb the effect of "sociopathic" players so that the game remained playably worthwhile for the majority of players. for example, in express you just can't start off using missiles against a gdi player whereas on tourney you can. i believe this came up primarily to restrict suiciders making express unplayable -- who wants to put in 5 days of netting only to be wiped out at the end by unknown players who are doing it for kicks? hence the restrictive shape of express gdi today

tourney is more free, partly because you keep your name if you stay in A, so grudges play out over time, but also because the 2x limit can be used as protection.

@drkprince - the touney server details page lists humanitarians as 8x i think

DP you dumb fck. :)

Primary GDI does not at all limit who you hit except at very the end of the reset you can only attack those who have aggressed on you if you are in GDI, but not if you are outside of GDI even if your target is GDI. Humanitarians are x4 but that is independent of GDI.

Express GDI is the same as primary. Humanitarians is x12. So GDI does not change this.

Tournament is x2 for GDI and x8 for humanitarians, you can declare war to override GDI, but not humanitarians.

I dont get why you have to spew falsehoods when you are not Marshal and you know better! :)

I'm spewing guidelines to go by! and GDI is probably ran by humanitarians so in a sense i'm still right and my breaks are 110% accurate 110% of the time!

You almost never make a 100% correct statement, that is correct.