Nuclear War - surviving and Recovering

[solops]

Is there any defense for cities against ICBMs? Shields do not seem to help and I am unable to determine if bunkers help mitigate damage to population or structures from nukes.

I have found that the radiation aftereffects can be combated, but the effort is enormous and time consuming. My current doctrine is to build bunkers up as high as I can and to build at least a level 2 radiation cleaning facility in each city BEFORE a war. There are two other types of anti-radiation facilities, but I have not worked with them much. Also, I put some solar energy facilities near the city for energy, This way, after the city is nuked, energy for radiation cleanup is available and it can be started immediately, in case a big reactor got taken out.The higher up you can build the installations, the faster you can recover. There is a race to be won as the population flees the city due to radiation, so a recovery needs to be fast enough to occur while there are still people available to man the cleanup facilities. In the meantime, mothball most everything else to focus workers where needed most and hope you can recover before all the industry disintegrates due to lack of workers and hope the radiation can be reduced fast enough to entice people to stop leaving.

Thoughts, experiences and solutions earnestly welcome.

NOTE: my observations are based on several games, most recently when my 5 oldest cities were blasted with nukes over a 5 turn span. Two cities were hit twice.

[solops]

Some background comments are warranted.
Normally one tends to concentrate production to take advantage of economies of scale that are built into the structure progression tree. In nuclear war this can be bad. If you have only one or two centers of production of an item, say ammunition, and they get blasted then you can be in real trouble very fast. I have found the most serious and far reaching bottlenecks to be energy production and transportation. Ammo is up there, too. So counter to normal considerations, decentralization is your friend. If you have only one or two big energy producers and they get nuked, bad time are near. That is why I suggest at least some local energy production ( solar) in each city. And, unless I have just been unlucky, the AI is smart. It seems to go after my weak points, within the limits of whatever reconnaissance Vic has built in.

[solops]

I forgot to mention, when building solar at your cities it is wise to put some of it OUTSIDE the city so that it does not get blasted. That way it can function so long as sufficient pop remains.