(OUT OF DATE/2UC)A Vox Populi(CBP) Guide: Siam

This guide is currently out of date for the 5.0 aka 4UC integration patch of Vox Populi. I thought it would be easier to make new guides instead of trying to edit these, plus they may be good to have if someone wanted to play an older version of Vox Populi. However, do note that some things in this guide may be out of date, as due to both busier life stuff and the knowledge that 4UC has been coming for a while some parts of the guides weren’t updating even with other VP changes

Both the UA and UB have had some changes. This guide may not be useable unless you are on a much older version of VP

Once a new version of this guide comes out, it will be linked here 4UC Siam Guide

These guides are designed to help players who are new to Civ but still interested in Vox Populi, familiar with Civ but new to Vox Populi, or even those well versed in Vox Populi who just want to see if there's anything they didn't know about a particular civilization. I am actually a big fan of Zigzagzigal's Civ guide series, and it really helped me learn a lot about the game, and I wanted to bring a similar experience for fans of the Vox Populi or Community Balance Patch modpack. For those interested in the modpack it can be downloaded here[forums.civfanatics.com]

Anyways, without further ado, onto the Siamese!

Before I go into depth with this guide, here's an explanation of some terminology I'll be using throughout for the sake of newer players.

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. +33% Great Scientist rate and +25% growth in all cities from rationalism.)
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% Great Person Rate and +100% construction of guilds in Artistry)
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.
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.
XP - Experience Points - Get enough and you'll level up your unit, giving you the ability to heal your unit or get a promotion.

Siam has a Forest & Jungle Start Bias which is good for Wats, although it might make it slightly harder to find city states in the early game
Influence with city states starts at 40

Yields from friendly and allied city states increased by 100%

+25% of allied City State capitals

+10 xp to units gifted by City States

A mounted melee unit

Negative Changes

• 3 Movement(down from 4)

Positive One-Off Changes

• Higher combat strength (26 instead of 24)
  
• +50% Combat Strength against Mounted Units
  
• Adjacent enemy units have -10% combat strength(Feared Elephant)
  
• Does not require horses
  
• Obsoletes at Combustion rather than Metallurgy

Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes

• +25% if great general is on the same tile.

Positive Changes

• +2 +4 & +1
  
• Enemy spies stealing rate reduced by 50% (up from 25%)
  
• Costs 2 for maintenance(down from 4)
  
• Has 1 scientist specialist slot
  
• +2 from temples and shrines in the city
  
• +1 from nearby jungles and forests
  
• Costs 350(Down from 500)
  
• Arrives at Theology instead of Banking

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


Domination is probably the only path I don't recommend Siam go, but they do have some bonuses. Naresuan's Elephant can do great on defense but don't offer much of an advantage on offense. The potential to get unique units with a bit more experience from militaristic City States could provide an interesting route, but it's wholly dependent on what units they give.
Siam should have solid culture generation from City States and their Wats. Wats and Zoos can also turn forest and jungle tiles into decent tourism in the late game.
Science is probably Siam's best backup route, as Wats can give a decent amount of science, as well as militaristic City States. They should also have lots of growth from Maritime City States, possibly allowing for more growth then any civ in the game, but it's not reliable.
Diplomacy is Siam's best route, but only because of their goal to try and get City States for their passive ally bonuses, Siam actually has almost no bonus towards gaining City States other then the starting influence, which doesn't matter once the world congress begins. Stronger City State capitals does help delay other civs from just conquering your city states to stop a diplomatic win though.
If Siam manages to find a religious City State at the start of the game they can get a very quick religion, but it isn't as reliable as other religious civs.

I like the cut of your jib Mister Ramkhamhaeng, have a metric ton of food

Getting enough influence for an immediate friendship may not have any long term benefits, but in the early game these are some of the strongest bonuses around given they are 100% stronger. In particular you hope to find maritime and religious City States, early on, as they give the most additional benefits from just a friendship. Cultural, mercantile, and militaristic City States get minimal extra friendship yields from the Siamese UA, at least at this point in the game. Of course you can't know what a City State is until you actually find them, so you'll want to scout as much as possible. Building an extra pathfinder early is a great idea. City States can often be on their own islands as well, so getting Fishing early is a must.

Above: If you can keep up a militaristic City State friendship for just a bit longer then the base 40 you start with, you can get an extra warrior or two to help clear out barb camps they want you to kill.

City State bonuses increase as you enter certain eras, as well as increasing when you become allies, making sure you are always gaining a large amount of benefits throughout the game. Make sure to stay on top of buying or building diplomatic units, rush important diplomatic techs like education and industrialization, and pick up important diplomatic wonders, mainly the summer palace to make up for your lack of diplomatic bonuses.

Above: The last thing about the Siamese UA is extra City State capital strength. Note how my ally Manila has 24 strength, while Wittenberg only has 17.

The Wat is a very interesting building, in that it barely resembles the building it replaces. It comes a full era earlier, is cheaper to make, and gives a ton of bonuses not related to the original purpose of the constabulary, while still retaining and expanding on those too. The Wat gives 3 major bonuses.

The first is that temples and shrines in the city give 2 science, meaning the Wat effectively gives 6 science, more if you count what the specialist slot is giving. That's a higher base yield then universities, and even technically public schools. Both of those buildings of course give other science bonuses, but it still is a lot on a building that originally gave no science.

The second bonus is that it gives nearby forests and jungles 1 culture. This isn't an immense amount, but if you have lumber camps built on them it adds a decent bit on a tile you're working anyways. It also can help a lot with tourism if you have enough of them, as with Zoos and Hotels/Stadiums/Airports each forest or jungle can be giving at least 3 tourism, along with a lot of production and some gold for forests, and lots of gold and some science for jungles.

The final bonus slows down enemy spies by 50%. It might seem a bit odd to get a bonus like this before anyone has spies (well except England of course, in which case you'll love this bonus even more) but they will come eventually. By the time they do, you'll probably have these buildings in every city that is of a good size, so therefore you'll be a poor target for spying, even if there is a good chance you'll be ahead on science.

Fun fact; Naresuan was a king of Ayutthaya, a kingdom in modern day Thailand, and he defeated the Burmese crown prince in an elephant duel.

Naresuan's Elephant is a strong defensive unit to almost universally repel any medieval assault, and they even hold up in the renaissance era. They have two main benefits. A 50% combat boost against mounted units that allows them to demolish knights and even beat Lancers, as well as Feared Elephant, giving adjacent enemy units -10% combat strength. Naresuan's Elephant destroys knights, has the combat strength to crush pikemen, and while slower then knights, still have the speed to pressure and kill ranged units. Siam is nigh untouchable in the medieval era. If there is one thing that Naresuan's Elephant doesn't hold up great against though, it's cities. Feared Elephant doesn't affect cities, and they'll be dealing only slightly less damage to them then they would do to knights, against a target that can't hit and run them very effectively. If you happen to get a unique unit from a city state that is suited for this, Naresuan's Elephants can still do well against an army on offense, but otherwise it is best to leave them as a deterrent to any agressors.

They even do ok against tercios mostly due to Feared Elephant +25% combat strength with a great general on the same tile

Siam should go Tradition in order to capitalize on the extra food City States give, as well as to have a place to generate the Great People and build the wonders City States want to see. They should then go Statecraft to better befriend those City States. A Diplomatic or Cultural Siam should go Industry but a Science Siam should go Rationalism

Opener: The extra population is great to help build up infrastructure to fulfill any City State request

Justice: The early production will help with any early wonders you want to build

Sovereignty: Border expansion is nice, plus this is some artist generation so you can gain an artist the turn before a City State requests one and be really sad about it.

Ceremony: The extra science will help clear up any remaining worker techs

Splendor: I always recommend going Splendor before Majesty because Splendor can give a good amount of culture, getting you to finishing tradition quicker.

Majesty: Considering your capital is going to be very large, and likely have a lot of specialists, this ensures your growth isn't stumped.

Finisher: Get a bit more use out of your great person improvements! Plus hey, a stronger capital never hurt yeah? Have a throne room!

Opener: Small bit of gold and a few extra yields in the capital can't hurt

Trade Confederacy: This helps to make sure you don't have to keep sending diplomatic units just to keep a City State above 60 influence.

Foreign Service: A big boost to gaining and keeping City States, plus the spy is great

Shadow Networks: A big boost to science, because you need more incentive to get City State allies

Consulates: Helps encourage exclusive trading with City States, and gives some unorthodox tourism if you want to go that route

Exchange Markets: An extra trade route, bonus tourism modifiers from having trade routes with other civs, possible monopolies, a fantastic boost.

Finisher: You might have stronger science then culture at this point, so you might get to wonders faster then you have the policies, but that shouldn't be an issue anymore.

Opener: Two trade routes, great for more city state influence or even some tourism bonuses

Division of Labor: Seaports and Train Stations are normally expensive buildings, but now they are in line with other buildings. Also a large boost to your production and gold outputs

Free Trade: You lack great gold generation, so more Great Merchants is definitely useful

Entrepreneurship: Gold and production, the industry tree knows what it wants, and you do too.

Mercantilism: A good bit of extra science and culture. Who ever said Industry was just gold and production? Wait a minute...

Protectionism: More food and science, can't complain

Finisher: Siam is probably gonna have specialists everywhere as their cities are likely massive if they've kept up maritime alliances, so this is a good boost

Opener: Little bit of science and a small bit of production too.

Scientific Revolution: Depending on the terrain, observatories could give a lot of science, or not much at all. Keeping your jungles around will really pay off now though, as they'll just have crazy yields

Empiricism: Because spies didn't have enough trouble stealing from you?

Rights of Man: A bit of extra yields across the empire, which is always welcome

Enlightenment: Postponing this as long as possible means you're getting a more expensive tech for free.

Free Thought: Extra science from Great Scientists is always good.

Finisher: More Great Scientists, more Growth, All is good for Siam

A Diplomatic or Cultural Siam should go Freedom, but a Science Siam is best served by Order.

Economic Union: 2 trade routes, 2 more City States getting influence or two more civs getting a tourism boost

Covert Action: Makes your spies better at getting those tricky city states your diplomatic rivals don't want to give up.

Civil Service: You'll probably have plenty of specialists at this point, so you could be growing faster. Grow faster

Creative Expression(Culture): Make your great works work harder

Universal Healthcare: A free hospital in every city, possibly before you even have biology researched, is amazing.

Transnationalism(Culture): Corporate franchises actually increase Tourism towards the civ you found them in, so getting a few extra will help

Arsenal of Democracy(Diplomacy): Get a bit more out of your great people with extra influence whenever you use them.

Capitalism(Culture): Will help with the large amounts of specialists you likely have

Treaty Organization: Again increasing the benefits of trading with city states. Integral to a diplomatic game but still useful in a cultural one

Media Culture(Culture): This will push your Tourism over the edge and you should be able to convert even high culture civs, at least with a musician or two to back you up.

Worker's Faculties: Free Factories is a nice boost, plus they'll now give some extra science

Communism: You lack strong production bonuses, and there are some crucial late game science wonders, this will help you bridge the gap.

Hero of the People: Get a scientist to get the last few techs, or an engineer to put towards spaceship parts

Academy of Sciences: Free Research Labs possibly before you have them researched will help push your science up like crazy

Five Year Plan: This is a crazy boost to your production, so go crazy with it.

Spaceflight Pioneers: Save every engineer you get for when you can build spaceships and win the game almost instantly.

Petra: While it's unlikely Siam will be able to get Petra given their start bias, if they can the extra trade route is useful for getting City States
Colossus: You want it for the same reasons as Petra, and it's slightly easier to build, if more of a detour on the tech tree

Oracle: Should pretty much get you to Theology all on its own, and almost getting a full social policy worth of culture is nice too.

Roman Forum: A bit of a competitive wonder, but it'll give your diplomatic units that little extra boost, not to mention the free Great Diplomat

Machu Picchu: Again terrain dependent, but the extra gold can help in buying diplomatic units

University of Sankore(Tradition Only): Going Tradition always means plenty of early great people, might as well get some science out of it

Leaning Tower of Pisa: Free Great Person, more Great People in the future, what's not to love?

Porcelain Tower(Science): Quite a large boost to science, should set you well on the path towards getting public schools before everyone else.

Summer Palace: Absolute necessity, especially for a diplomatic victory. I'd even go so far to say that as Siam, if you don't get this wonder, you're best off abandoning the diplomatic path in favor of something else, it is that important to Siam

Uffizi(Culture): A great Theming Bonus and a good bit of culture

Palace of Westminster(Statecraft Only): While not as necessary as Summer Palace, this still gives a massive advantage towards a diplomatic victory, and is still nice for other victories, given you went Statecraft anyways, and having an edge in the world congress is always useful
Broadway(Industry Only): Similar to Uffizi but with Music instead of Art

Cristo Redentor(Culture): Lots of Tourism, including from things you already build to get Tourism

Statue of Liberty(Freedom Only): Adds a lot of production to all those specialists you probably have

Kremlin(Order Only): You're mainly here for the free social policy

Bletchley Park(Rationalism Only): You don't NEED enemy spies to be worse, but it certainly doesn't hurt, plus hey having your spies be better is great too.
CERN: Two Free techs & 100 Influence with all City States is pretty much the dream for Siam.

CN Tower(Culture): Extra Tourism from basically every source of tourism

Great Firewall(Culture): You don't really need this wonder, but if someone else gets it they will become a massive roadblock to a culture victory

Hubble Space Telescope: Two Great Scientists is close enough to two free techs, plus the faster spaceship building is great for science.

Siam is a bit of a deceptive civ. They may seem a hard focused diplomatic civ, but are actually a pretty flexible peaceful civ. Mistakes can arise from this assumption, and even being flexible can make it hard to come up with a gameplan

The 40 influence and friendship upon first meeting a city state is most powerful in the early game. The faster you can find city states the better
With the exception of cutting them down for resources, forests/jungles are better for Siam then normal tiles due to the Wat. 1 culture doesn't sound like a huge amount, but can add up in the mid game with enough of them, and late game zoos will allow them to make a lot of tourism
The Siamese UU is really strong and will almost guarantee your safety in the medieval era. However, you have literally nothing besides the UU, and only one of its promotions carry over, and it's a somewhat minor one in my opinion. So once renaissance units start coming around you'll be vulnerable again. City State units help a bit but you'll need to build up some forces of your own
Siam wants to get city states, and if they end up dominating that then sure, a diplomatic victory is the natural choice. However, if other civs try to give serious competition, Siam might struggle. If you find yourself in a losing diplomatic battle or just investing too many resources, consolidate your influence with a few important city states and go for culture or science. Wats give benefits to both culture and science, and the city state bonuses should have left you with high population cities perfect for either victory type.

Siam gets some of the strongest boosts in the game from City States, and their other uniques provide a lot of powerful support. But their flaw is that they rely on the outside force of City States, and it isn't hard to topple that.

There isn't much you can do to stop Siam from getting the initial bonuses from getting 40 starting influence with City States, short of just conquering them immediately, but in the long run it isn't hard to keep City States from being their allies. Almost every other diplomatic civ will have the advantage in overturning their City States, and even normal civs can do a good job of it. Try to send diplomatic units and complete quests for maritime City States, that will hurt them the most. If you don't want to bother with that subtlety, just conquer them instead, it will be harder then normal given that they will have tougher cities, but it is by no means impossible just slower. As long as you aren't on a time crunch to conquer them before Siam can win a diplomatic victory, it isn't a big deal if the conquest takes a few more turns. If Siam does end up running away with City States and is clearly going for a diplomatic victory, just keep an eye on the world congress in the late game, and be ready to drop everything earlier then with other civs to prevent their victory.
Wats are definitely a strong building but not core to the Siamese strategy. There isn't much you can do to stop the slower spies or science that they give, just note that it might be better to steal from another civ unless Siam is the only civ ahead on science. If possible do try to take good forest and jungle land to deny them culture.
Naresuan's Elephant is effective against pretty much every medieval unit, unique or not. Your best bet is to simply just ignore Siam in the mid-game, at least militarily. Naresuan's Elephants give no major lasting benefit once upgraded, and if no one bothers to fight them until they are obsolete, their mounted units won't even have high level promotions. If you do have to fight them though, ranged units and anit-cav units are probably your best bet. Ranged units still don't do great, but it isn't as much of a losing battle as with knights. Pikemen and even Tercios aren't going to beat them 1 on 1, but they should be able to at least last long enough for ranged units to get enough shots in to at least force a retreat.
Early-Game Warmongers: Siam should be an easy target, they may have the odd unique unit if they were really lucky but it shouldn't be enough to pose a real threat

Mid-Game Warmongers I'd recommend to just go conquer someone else, but if that isn't an option, bring plenty of ranged units with pikemen or tercios to protect them. A possible option is to focus more on taking out their City States during this time.

Late-Game Warmongers: Siam will likely have a hodgepodge of units with random unique promotions, but ultimately no major military boosts. Once again if you can't get to them take out their City States first, it might pull their army away from their mainland, to a most likely less advantageous position trying to defend that City State, or it'll weaken both their infrastructure and power in the world congress

Diplomatic Players: Taking away Siam's City States hurts them more then anything, and you won't find much more resistance then a typical civ. Basically any strong diplomatic civ is Siam's worst nightmare.

Science Players: It might be somewhat out of your way, but if you get to techs with important diplomatic wonders, mainly Acoustics with the Summer Palace, try to build it yourself, it may not help you much but it denies Siam a crucial advantage they need to stay competitive in keeping City States.

Cultural Players: Siam could prove annoying as they may build wonders just to gain City State Influence. It is fairly random, so unless you're unlucky they shouldn't prove a ton of competition unless they choose to commit to a culture victory. In that case, just try your best to outproduce them on wonders. If you can spare the gold or production(but preferably gold), sending a few diplomatic units to try and steal their City States will likely divert their attention more then most, and hurt their infrastructure a lot too.

These guide cover every civ in the game, and can be used as a quick reference

• Civ Summaries

• America (Domination/Science/Culture)
  
• Arabia (Culture/Science)
  
• Assyria (Science/Domination)
  
• Austria (Diplomacy/Culture)
  
• The Aztecs (Domination/Science)
  
• Babylon (Science)
  
• Brazil (Culture)
  
• Byzantium (All)
  
• Carthage (Domination/Diplomacy)
  
• The Celts (Domination/Culture/Science)
  
• China (Domination/Culture)
  
• Denmark (Domination)
  
• Egypt (Culture)
  
• England (Domination/Diplomacy)
  
• Ethiopia (Science)
  
• France (Domination/Culture)
  
• Germany (Diplomacy/Science)
  
• Greece (Domination/Diplomacy/Culture)
  
• The Huns (Domination)
  
• The Inca (Science/Domination)
  
• India (Science/Culture)
  
• Indonesia (Domination/Culture/Science)
  
• The Iroquois (Domination)
  
• Japan (Domination/Culture)
  
• Korea (Science/Domination)
  
• The Maya (Science/Domination)
  
• Morocco (Culture/Diplomacy)
  
• Mongolia (Domination)
  
• The Netherlands (Diplomacy/Domination)
  
• The Ottomans (Domination/Science)
  
• Persia(Domination/Culture)
  
• Poland (Domination)
  
• Polynesia (Culture)
  
• Portugal (Science/Diplomacy)
  
• Rome (Domination/Science)
  
• Russia (Science/Domination)
  
• The Shoshone (Domination/Science/Culture)
  
• Songhai (Domination)
  
• Spain (Domination/Culture)
  
• Sweden (Domination)
  
• Venice (Diplomacy/Culture/Domination)
  
• The Zulus (Domination)