I was very puzzled in recent huge map emperor game where I was slugging it out with Theodora in a good old fashioned nuke fest. She declared one day this earth just wasn't big enough for the both of us and back stabbed me with a preemptive attack.
TL;DR quickie: bomb shelter vastly reduces population loss AND any city based units completely survive, guaranteed not one single loss, and only 25% hp lost from each direct nuclear missile hit to all units. E.g. No more mass aircraft stack death from one nuclear missle, now takes 4 hits!
Longer version:
I sent in my nuclear subs with nuclear missiles. Oddly enough, Theo had built bomb shelters in damn near every home city but her capital didnt have one.
I launched 4 nuclear missiles against two cities - her capital and another ginormous city with population 30+, both with stack of aircraft based in city.
Results? Bomb shelters are poorly labeled in the civlopedia. It only says reduces population loss by 75%, but reality is it reduces population loss by 75% AND city based units only take 25% hp loss per nuclear missile direct hit.
Her capital, no bomb shelter, 36 population: one nuclear missile hit = pop reduced down to 11, all city based aircraft stack dead plus the usual 2 tiles around city of insta-death to surrounding units. 2nd nuke missile hit and her capital is now useless rubble with population 3.
Big city, has bomb shelter, 35 population: one nuclear missile hit = barely dented, pop down only to 30, ALL units in her city survives. I saved and reloaded to be sure it wasn't just graphical glitch still showing her aircraft stack. 2nd nuke missile hit, same negligible effect, pop now down to 25, all city based unit still survived
Needless to say the nuke fest went on a long time and in the end I had to win the old fashioned way with land and stealth bombers taking her cities conventionally.
Curious, tested this with my own city and air stacks based in the city. Put a stack of stealth bombers, jets, an infantry garrison and battleship inside my city. Launched one nuclear missile against my own city and:
A) without bomb shelter, all units insta-death from first nuke missile hit
B) with bomb shelter, all unite survive guaranteed and seems like exact fixed damage per nuke missile hit. First missile, all city based units lose exactly 25% of hp. Second missile, another 25% hp loss. And so on. Takes exactly 4 nukes to kill 100% healthy units inside cities.
Note - for damage formula, nuke missiles and atomic bombs work exactly the same. Any mix of nuke missiles and bombs will deduct only 25% hp from city based units per hit. So going forward, building the cheaper atomic bombs are actually better if you want to wipe out the enemy aircraft stacks.
I must say I both like and dislike this. With modest dispersion of air forces and basing them in cities with bomb shelters, it makes it very difficult to have defending forces annihilated by nukes considering you need 4 direct hits all on same turn. And that only kills a few aircraft if you dispersed wisely. Even dispersing to modest number of cities, the attacker would need a a gigantic stockpile of nukes to cripple your Air Force in a first strike nuke launch.
TL;DR quickie: bomb shelter vastly reduces population loss AND any city based units completely survive, guaranteed not one single loss, and only 25% hp lost from each direct nuclear missile hit to all units. E.g. No more mass aircraft stack death from one nuclear missle, now takes 4 hits!
Longer version:
I sent in my nuclear subs with nuclear missiles. Oddly enough, Theo had built bomb shelters in damn near every home city but her capital didnt have one.
I launched 4 nuclear missiles against two cities - her capital and another ginormous city with population 30+, both with stack of aircraft based in city.
Results? Bomb shelters are poorly labeled in the civlopedia. It only says reduces population loss by 75%, but reality is it reduces population loss by 75% AND city based units only take 25% hp loss per nuclear missile direct hit.
Her capital, no bomb shelter, 36 population: one nuclear missile hit = pop reduced down to 11, all city based aircraft stack dead plus the usual 2 tiles around city of insta-death to surrounding units. 2nd nuke missile hit and her capital is now useless rubble with population 3.
Big city, has bomb shelter, 35 population: one nuclear missile hit = barely dented, pop down only to 30, ALL units in her city survives. I saved and reloaded to be sure it wasn't just graphical glitch still showing her aircraft stack. 2nd nuke missile hit, same negligible effect, pop now down to 25, all city based unit still survived
Needless to say the nuke fest went on a long time and in the end I had to win the old fashioned way with land and stealth bombers taking her cities conventionally.
Curious, tested this with my own city and air stacks based in the city. Put a stack of stealth bombers, jets, an infantry garrison and battleship inside my city. Launched one nuclear missile against my own city and:
A) without bomb shelter, all units insta-death from first nuke missile hit
B) with bomb shelter, all unite survive guaranteed and seems like exact fixed damage per nuke missile hit. First missile, all city based units lose exactly 25% of hp. Second missile, another 25% hp loss. And so on. Takes exactly 4 nukes to kill 100% healthy units inside cities.
Note - for damage formula, nuke missiles and atomic bombs work exactly the same. Any mix of nuke missiles and bombs will deduct only 25% hp from city based units per hit. So going forward, building the cheaper atomic bombs are actually better if you want to wipe out the enemy aircraft stacks.
I must say I both like and dislike this. With modest dispersion of air forces and basing them in cities with bomb shelters, it makes it very difficult to have defending forces annihilated by nukes considering you need 4 direct hits all on same turn. And that only kills a few aircraft if you dispersed wisely. Even dispersing to modest number of cities, the attacker would need a a gigantic stockpile of nukes to cripple your Air Force in a first strike nuke launch.