A 4UC Vox Populi Guide: Siam

These are an updated set of guides for the Vox Populi mod meant to help players learn the details and how to play each civ in the game. Whether new to civ entirely, experienced in civ but new to Vox Populi, or even well experienced with the mod and just looking for a refresher, these guides are designed to be useful to all. These guides were inspired by Zigzagzigal's guides, as they helped me learn a lot about the game when I first started playing it over a decade ago, and I wanted to provide a similar experience for the Vox Populi mod, which has become my go to way to play civ v, and is my favorite strategy game. For those looking for the download for the mod, it can be found here[forums.civfanatics.com]

With that out of the way, onto the Siamese!

Before getting into the specifics of the civ, a few terms that I may be using during this guide will be defined here

Beelining - Focusing on obtaining a technology early by only researching technologies needed to research it and no others. For example, to beeline Bronze Working, you'd research Mining and Bronze Working and nothing else until Bronze Working was finished.
Finisher - The bonus for completing a Social Policy tree (e.g. All Naval and Air units gaining a promotion increasing their strength as they take damage from Imperialism.)
GWAM - Great Writers, Artists and Musicians. These are the three types of Great People who can make Great Works, a major source of tourism for cultural Civs.
Opener - The bonus for unlocking a Social Policy tree (e.g. +25% GWAM generation, +10% culture generation during golden ages and +100% construction of guilds in Artistry)
Scaling with Era - Any trait scaling with era will double in the medieval era, then increase by the same amount every era afterwards (For example, a +1 bonus scaling with era would increase to +2 in the medieval, +3 in the renaissance, etc. until a max of +7 in the information era)
Tall Empire - A low number of cities with a high population each.
UA - Unique Ability - the unique thing a Civilization has which doesn't need to be built.
UB - Unique Building - A replacement for a normal building that can only be built and used by one Civilization.
UI - Unique Improvement - A tile improvement that can be made by workers that doesn't replace any other improvement that can only be made by a single civilization
UU - Unique Unit - A replacement for a normal unit that can only be built by one Civilization or provided by militaristic City-States when allied.
UGP - Unique Great Person - A replacement for a great person that only one civilization can generate
Uniques - Collective name for Unique Abilities, Units, Buildings, Tile Improvements and Great People
Wide Empire - A high number of cities with a low population each.
WLTKD - We love the king day.
XP - Experience Points - Get enough and you'll level up your unit, giving you the ability to heal your unit or get a promotion.
ZOC - Stands for "Zone of Control" which is the effect that causes units to use all their movement if they move from a space adjacent to an enemy unit to another space still adjacent to that same unit

Siam has a jungle/forest start bias. This is good for the Elephant Camp, but could make it slightly harder to find city states early on.
Yields, Resources and unit gift frequency from friendly and allied city states are doubled

A mounted melee unit

Negative Changes

• 3 movement(down from 4)

Positive One-Off Changes

• Higher combat strength (26 instead of 25)
  
• 50% combat bonus against mounted units.
  
• -10% combat strength to adjacent enemy units(Feared Elephant)
  
• Does not require horses
  
• Obsoletes at Combustion rather than Metallurgy

Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes

• +25% combat bonus when a great general is on this tile

A siege unit

Negative Changes

• No bonus against cities(Down from 100% bonus)

Positive One-Off Changes

• Higher combat strength (19 instead of 17)
  
• Higher ranged strength (45 instead of 40)
  
• Deals 15 damage to all enemy units on the tile when attacking if this unit has not moved this turn(Crouching Tiger)
  
• Obsoletes at Advanced Ballistics rather than Ballistics

Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes

• +50% combat strength against naval units(Coastal Artillery)

Positive Changes

• +2 +1 & +3 (up from +2)
  
• +1 to lumber mills
  
• +1& for every 2 strategic resources imported from city states

These scores are merely my personal opinions from playing and examining this Civ, you may find other uses for the Siamese uniques that make you disagree with a certain ranking


Both of Siam's UUs are very strong defensively during their peak, but other then those and the occasional unit from city states, Siam has little military advantage
The Elephant Camp gives solid culture that translates well to tourism, and their UA can also give a fair amount of culture
The Wat can give a fair amount of science, and the Siamese UA gives both a bit of science and infrastructure bonuses
The Elephant camp and UA give a decent amount of gold, and the Wat gives a solid diplomatic bonus
Between their UA and the Wat, Siam has a fairly strong religious base

Pretty much all bonuses that city states give from being friends or allies are doubled, including yields, happiness, resources, and the frequency of unit gifts. Early game this is a pretty big deal, do your best to nab any quests from nearby city states, even getting just a friend or two can be the equivalent of several buildings worth of yields, such as a cultural city state friend giving the same culture as a monument, or a religious city state giving the faith of a shrine. Arguably the most important city state though is actually militaristic city states

I don't necessarily consider War Chariots the best unique unit ever, but it's still nice

Militaristic city states can easily become the bulk of your military as Siam, even if they aren't giving unique units, they still are giving you units at a rate of about 1 every 10 turns, which is probably about half the rate of a city with strong production, but for free. Make sure whatever city is closest to a military city state is up to date on military promotion buildings like barracks and armories, and you'll be able to keep up your army without having to either purchase or build units as long as you can keep the city state as at least a friend if not preferably an ally.

Yields from an allied city state in the late medieval. This one city state makes up more then a fourth of my faith output.

Even later in the game city state yields can make up a significant amount of your yields, so try your best to keep them allied.

The Wat is an extremely unique building, as you cannot build it unlike most buildings, nor does it replace another building. Instead, it is best to think of it in a similar way as the monastery from fealty. A building purchased with faith that gives some decent yields. The Wat does indeed give decent yields, including increasing science from shrines and temples, but they give two other notable benefits

A city with a Wat, shrine and temple will be generating 8 science just from those 3 buildings

The first additional benefit Wats give is by giving a huge amount of religious pressure of your capital's majority religion. While for most civs it is sensible to found your religion in your capital, it is especially important for Siam to do so. I'm usually a proponent of enhancing your religion before purchasing anything else, especially missionaries to convert your cities, but it makes a lot of sense to purchase Wats as early as possible. While technically less faith efficient then missionaries for converting your own cities, the extra faith they generate should make up for that.

A diplomat with the Roman Forum, and most of statecraft completed

The Wat also gives all diplomatic units generated from the city an extra 10 influence. In the grand scheme of things this isn't a massive increase, but all other factors being equal it will give you the edge in a battle of city state influence.

Nowhere to run little barbarian

Naresuan's Elephant is an absolute monster of a unit for the medieval era. As an elephant unit, they come with the expected traits of not requiring horses, having feared elephant which causes a reduction to adjacent enemy unit's combat strength, and being slower and stronger.

All of these are true, but Naresuan's Elephant has a few more benefits. The more notable of the two is that they have a massive 50% combat strength bonus against mounted units. This means that the only unit of the era that could hope to stand up to Naresuan's Elephant, the knight, or any other knight replacements, will get absolutely run over. The other benefit Naresuan's Elephant gets is a 25% combat strength bonus when a great general is on their tile. Not the easiest thing to get in all circumstances, but do your best to keep any generals on your elephants.

• +25% combat bonus when a great general is on this tile

Naresuan's Elephant may be strong enough to stand up to even early renaissance units like tercios thanks to feared elephant, but they retain almost nothing of note on upgrade save for the great general bonus, which is even more difficult to use on more mobile mounted units.

I'd like to think that when Naresuan's Elephants retire from the battlefield they go to work a job in the Elephant Camps

The Elephant Camp comes with two important bonuses. The first is that all lumber camps give +1 culture. Combined with zoos later on in the game jungles and forests can give quite a lot of tourism. Keep the forests and jungles you probably started near around and they can give some solid yields

The other important part of the Elephant Camp is that it gives 1 gold and production for every 2 strategic resources imported from city states. It feeds into the Siamese gameplay loop of allying as many city states as possible for more yields. If you're doing well, the Elephant Camp will propel you even further

If you are someone who largely puts workers on automate, do note that they tend to prioritize lumber camps less then most improvements, so keep an eye on that if you do have a lot of forest/jungle

Our great artillery stands guard over our most important straits

Continuing Siam's largely defensive streak is the Suea Mop. It comes with two notable promotions. The first, and simplest to understand is costal artillery. Combined with their increased combat strength the Suea Mop absolutely cleans up pretty much any ships, especially if they are still renaissance era, but even industrial era ships can't stand up very well to an attack from these.

The Suea Mop may still have siege inaccuracy, but they are extremely effective at attacking units on land as well as sea. As long as they haven't moved, they deal an extra flat 15 damage, that cannot be reduced. As long as units can't get in to attack in melee the Suea Mop can deal a massive amount of damage to any unit, wiping the floor with them. Of course the Suea Mop does loss the siege engine promotion which gives a bonus to attacking cities, which would make you think that they are purely a defensive unit, and useless attacking cities unlike their generic field gun counterpart. However, that could not be further from the truth. Unlike all other flat damage promotions in the game such as splash damage, Crouching Tiger's bonus damage affects units in a city, so the Suea Mop is one of the best units for killing a unit in a city, and when a city doesn't have a garrison it is much weaker. I wouldn't say this goes so far as making Siam a domination civ or anything, but don't let the idea of not having an industrial siege unit hold you back from an offensive war around that time.

Crouching cannon, hidden musket go boom

• +50% combat strength against naval units(Coastal Artillery)

Siam takes a fairly standard diplomatic path at first of Tradition into Statecraft. Their final policy depends on their victory path. Industry fits diplomacy and culture best, but Rationalism is best for a science game

Opener: The extra population you need to help get some city state quests done early

Justice: Extra production with which you can help get your infrastructure and wonders for city state quests going quicker

Ceremony: A bit of happiness but more importantly a good amount of science.

Splendor: Some nice yields from great people, nice for any tradition play

Sovereignty: Faster border growth and a bit of faith. Pretty nice

Majesty: You're likely to be working a good amount of specialists in the capital, so this helps assure your capital is still growing.

Finisher: Even better yields for your capital, and also better yields on all the great person tile improvements you're likely placing down

Opener: Siam doesn't actually have an amazing economy, so this is some welcome gold

Trade Confederacy: A solid bit of influence to make sure your city states stay in line

Foreign Service: Spies are neat, having more of them is good

Shadow Networks: Hopefully by this point you've gotten a fair few city states on your side. This gives you some nice benefits from them

Exchange Markets: Given you double resources from city states, this could actually net a fair few monopolies quite easily

Consulates: A nice little boost to your potential in the World Congress

Finisher: Siam has a good amount of culture but it isn't impossible they end up at a wonder early, this makes sure that isn't a problem

Opener: Helps your gold go a good bit farther

Subsidies: A decent boost to your science and gold, can't complain

Mercantilism: 2 trade routes for more city state influence and/or tourism pressure

Division of Labor: A nice boost to culture and production, both of which are appreciated

Entrepreneurship: A huge boost to all the lumber mills you hopefully have

Gold Standard: Some better gold investing and a bit of extra gold and culture. Can't complain

Finisher: Can't complain about more happiness and better tile yields

Opener: More food and better scientist specialists are both welcome

Employment Law: Makes it even easier to work more specialists, a good aid

Liberalism: Better specialists, and more great people during golden ages. What else could you want?

Mass Education: Feel free to take this earlier if you have an opportunity to grab an expensive ahead of time tech and/or are ready to start building public schools en masse

Emancipation: Bit more food, plus some other yields, not bad

Secularism: All those academies you probably have are really gonna be amazing now

Finisher: Makes it a bit harder for spies to steal your stuff.

A diplomatic or cultural Siam should go Freedom, but a science Siam is better served by Order

Economic Union: Two free trade routes, as stated in Industry, very good.

Avant Garde: More great people, good for either more great works, or more city state quests.

Creative Expression(Culture: A nice boost towards your primary method of generating tourism

Civil Society: A nice chunk of food

Arsenal of Democracy: If you start getting a bunch of extra units from your militarist allies, gift them right back for a solid chunk of influence

Capitalism(Diplomacy): Some ease of use and nice yields from specialists

New Deal(Culture): A huge boost to tourism, especially if you've been able to generate a lot of great people

Transnationalism(Culture): Helps spread your corporation for all it's various bonuses

Media Culture(Culture): A solid, reliable boost to both tourism and culture

Containment: Makes it easier to control both city states and the congress

Worker's Faculties: A nice boost to both science and production

Communism: Lets your money go further, and get out any important wonders faster

Hero of the People: A free person, and more down the line with a faster great person rate

Five Year Plan: You've likely kept more lumber camps around then most, this gives them a ton more production

Great Leap Forward: A free tech to get you that much closer to your spaceship techs

Spaceflight Pioneers: Lets your engineers contribute to building your spaceship parts, so keep them around to rapidly get them out

Terrain/resource specific pantheons are not listed here unless they have some other synergy with a civ's uniques, however they can often be a great choice if the terrain/resources you start with favors them

Goddess of Renewal: If you do spawn in a high density forest/jungle area, this could give a huge amount of yields

Ceremonial Burial: The best general choice if you aren't certain of victory type or if you're certain of going for a diplomatic victory

Evangelism(Culture): The best choice for most culture games

Council of Elders(Science): The best choice for most science games

Stupas(Culture: Gives a lot of tourism, a no brainer for basically any culture game

Thrift: Siam doesn't have a ton of gold, this can help out a lot

Synagogue: A good boost to both science and production

Abode of Peace: Makes it a fair bit easier to hold onto city states if you can convert them

Orthodoxy: Gives you a ton of passive pressure, especially with trade

Holy Land: Not only is this a huge help in taking over the congress, but it further boosts city state yields from converted city states

Divine Teachings(Science): The best reformation belief for any science civ

Sacred Sites(Culture): The best reformation belief for any culture civ. Try to nab lots of follower buildings to compound the effects

Petra: If you happen to get a desert start or can settle a city on one quickly, the extra trade route should let you get some early city state quests done quickly
Roman Forum: Makes your diplomatic units a lot more effective, especially this early, allowing you to gain and keep allies for longer

Great Wall: If Naresuan's Elephants aren't enough deterrent, this should all bit guarantee your safety until the late renaissance

Colossus: Similar to Petra, an extra trade route can lead to more early city state friends and allies

Oracle: Almost a free tech and policy, a no brainer for just about any civ

University of Sankore(Tradition Only): A nice bit of science from all your Tradition great people

Angkor Wat: You can spend your early faith on wats, then get this to enhance your religion to get a massive leg up

Borobudur: You may be able to easily spread your religion to your own cities without missionaries, but that just leaves even more room to spread to someone else

Karlstejn: If you are struggling to spread, this can get your reformation out easier, but if you are spreading well, getting it yourself stops someone else getting an easier reformation

Globe Theatre(Culture): A start to your cultural engine

Himeji Castle: The reign of your elephant is soon to be over, this helps fill the gaps and keep you safe

Summer Palace: A must for any game focusing on city states, diplomacy victory in mind or not.

Porcelain Tower(Science): Put this in your capital and watch your science climb

Uffizi(Culture): Really get your artists moving to generating a lot of tourism

Palace of Westminster(Statecraft Only): A huge help to getting and keeping control of the congress
Statue of Liberty(Freedom Only): More production plus a free policy.

Kremlin(Order Only): The armor bonus may not be that relevant, but the free policy is still worth it

Broadway(Industry Only): Lots of culture, plus some place to put your music

Cristo Redentor(Culture): A huge boost to your tourism

Bletchley Park(Rationalism Only): Makes it much harder for spies to mess and steal from you.
Hubble Space Telescope(Science): A huge push towards spaceship techs, and extra production to build them

CN Tower(Culture): A boost to just about everything that gives tourism

CERN: A huge amount of free techs to get to spaceships, and a ton of city state influence to get them all onto your side.

Siam can sometimes feel pulled in many different directions despite having one clear gameplan of playing the city state influence game, so there can be some oddities and mistakes to be had

You can only start completing city state quests and befriending them if you actually meet them in the first place. Make sure you are on top of your scouting early on.
Hopefully you find a religious city state or two early on so you can get a lot of extra faith to found, but even if you don't, you always want to build Wats when they can spread your religion. This is less important if you didn't found and you don't actually care about whoever is trying to convert you, but if there is a nearby religion you like, try your best to get it in your capital before you start building Wats.
You're unique units are incredibly strong defensive units, but they carry over little when they upgrade. Especially if you don't have any military city states you can befriend, you need to make sure your army is up to par when you lose the power of your uus or you'll be an easy target.
Even if you've decided you aren't going for a diplomatic victory, city states still give you amazing yields, and while you still get solid bonuses from friends, the best are from allies. Still put resources into diplomatic units and quests even in a culture or science game.
The culture from Elephant Camps is nice, even for a non-culture game. You have no real reason to chop down many forests/jungles except for resources

Siam gains huge bonuses from befriending city states, have strong mid game defenses, and are extremely flexible in their victory route. However, their bonuses towards any one thing tend to be outclassed by specialists, including towards city state diplomacy, and if they can't get city state allies, they have very little going for them.

Papa Ramkhamhang just went to get milk, he's coming back, swear it

Siam has one of the simpler UAs to counter, if you can beat Siam in the city state game, they get almost nothing from their UA. Try to target city states near them if possible, and build diplomatic wonders like the Roman Forum and the Summer Palace to give yourself an edge

Wats give quite the plethora of bonuses, but the two most important are diplomatic and religious. The extra bonus to diplomatic units is nice, but it won't overcome an enemy with a significant economic, infrastructure, or diplomatic bonus that can go into diplomatic units/influence. As for religion, just don't spread your religion into a Siamese city if Siam has founded a religion but hasn't spread it to that city yet, as they can buy a Wat to pretty much instantly undo your work.
Naresuan's Elephants are arguably the single strongest unit in the medieval era, especially on defense. There isn't a single unit in the medieval era that can beat them. It may be best to avoid invading Siam in the medieval era, but if you absolutely have to, crossbows are probably your best bet. Place them on hills, put pikes or longswords in front of them and just try to overwhelm them with ranged power. Tercios will fair a good bit better when you get to them, but they won't win one on one thanks to feared elephant, but with some ranged support they can punch through God, a lot of elephant extinction in this section. Ivory trade's looking good I guess

Elephant Camps only see their full potential if Siam is already doing well. Keep Siam from allying city states, and secondarily keep them from settling much forest/jungle, and they won't get much benefit from these.

The Suea Mop is a very powerful unit, especially on defense and especially against naval units, but can still be powerful on offense. Just like pretty much all siege units however, they are very vulnerable to melee. Get some mounted/armor units around the Siamese front, and you can easily dismantle their artillery.
Early Game Warmongers: If Siam doesn't have any nearby military city states they should prove about as easy a foe as possible, but even if they do, they shouldn't be that tough

Mid Game Warmongers: In contrast, the worst time to attack Siam. Wait till at least crossbows if not tercios, or even later renaissance units to stand a better chance

Late Game Warmongers: Siam will likely have quite the robust army despite being largely peaceful. Naval units are generally a bad idea, use mobile units and later on air units to take out their defensive artillery, and then push through with a strong force

Diplomatic Players: Your mere existence makes Siam's life way harder. Take over their city states, and Siam will have almost nothing going for them

Scientific Players: Try to put in some resources into diplomacy to hurt their yields, if you can use your tech lead to steal a wonder like the Summer Palace, even better

Cultural Players: Try to cut them off from settling much forest/jungles, and target any cultural city states near Siam and they shouldn't prove too much of a problem

• Arabia (Culture/Science)
  
• The Huns (Domination)
  
• The Inca (Science/Domination)
  
• Korea (Science)
  
• The Netherlands (Diplomacy/Domination/Culture)
  
• Portugal (Science/Diplomacy)
  
• Russia (Domination/Science)
  
• Songhai (Domination)
  
• Sweden (Domination/Diplomacy)