Aug 3rd 2014, 23:20:43
SPAL = Spies per acre of land. It is the measure of spy network strength. Depending on playstyle but I would say 15-25SPAL is optimal for growth, SPAL > 50 is great for warring countries or guys who want to ward-off attackers at the expense of economy. For example a 5000acre country with 100,000spies has a 20SPAL.
Double-tap = hit same country twice, bad idea because it breaks gdi protection
Construction sites = definitely not 80. The guide was probably saying 80 BPT or buildings per turn. However, when you're new you will not reach a high enough land mass to make 80BPT worthwhile. Start with 50, and when you get better in next seasons you can go up to 80bpt.
And finally yes, as a techer you don't want to waste too many turns exploring, building, spying or attacking. That's why you have to have an optimal number of construction sites, theocracy definitely helps, and a decent SPAL does too. Stop exploring at around 5000acres, then make 1 attack per day at around 1/3 of your NW range. That's a good newb-strat for techers ;). This way you dont hit guys that can hit you back, and you don't waste many turns spying/attacking/exploring and can focus on tech-ing.