But it's also the most important to counter, because no intel in that region means you can't try liberating or countering advent, youch. IMO the intel mission is pretty tough because sometimes the enemy spawns right on top of your relay and you're effed. If you do the mission then things continue on as normal, minus whoever you lost in battle. If you simply skip the mission entirely I've heard you outright lose a bunch of rebels and any soldier stationed in the haven. AKA you simply cannot put rebels on intel for that haven for that month, or whatever job the mission targets.
Whichever job the mission refers to is the one that you will lose the ability to conduct if you lose/don't do the mission, for like a month I believe or maybe 2 weeks, I haven't timed it. These missions are instantaneously loaded (like rendezvous, retalation, avenger defense) with no infiltration time, so there's no reason not to bring in 8 men (which is max for this type of mission). Advent detected you have a lot of people on that job in the region and are actively trying to counter you. If you read the text carefully, those missions refer to either supply, recruits, or intel. Ok when you see that 'unhindered operations' thing, it is referred to as a 'mini-retaliation' in the dev's language.
