Carl's Civ 5 Guide
for Civ 5 Complete, Gods & Kings, and Brave New World DLC

Civilization 5: Ramkhamhaeng Leader of SiamCiv 5 Civilization

Civ Bonuses, AI Info, Strategies, Unique Units and Buildings

Updated for Gods and Kings and Brave New World DLCs

Civilization's Leader: Ramkhamhaeng

Civ Bonus: Father Governs Children
Food, Culture, and Faith from Friendly/Allied City-States increased 50%.

Unique Unit: Naresuan's Elephant
Requires Chivalry, Replaces Knight
+50% bonus vs Mounted Units. Loses 1 move (3 total) but has 25 Strength vs 20 of a regular Knight. A 25% increase in Combat Strength.

Unique Building: Wat
Requires Education, replaces University
Gives +3 Culture in addition to regular University Benefits.

Playing Against The Ramkhamhaeng AI - Their Tendencies (XML Info and Flavors)
Warmonger
Hatred
Wonder
Compete
Offense
Build
Defense
Build
City
Defense
DoFFriendly
to Civs
Denounce
Civs
War w/CivsDeception
Likelihood
CS
Comp
CS War
845866755643
Other InfoHis CS Competitiveness Score being so low is strange, given the Civ's Bonus. This Civ is likely to pursue Cultural/Scientific victories and found a Religion. Ramkhamhaeng can be very Friendly, but is just as likely to be Deceptive. He has one of the highest Warmongerhatred Scores in the game, so will very much dislike any Conquest you may attempt.
Start Bias: Avoid Forest
The Siamese Civ benefits more from City-State Alliances
Maritime, Cultured, and Religious CS Alliances should be prioritized when playing Siam


Strategies/Ideas for playing Siam:
This Civilization's Unique Ability is the only thing that stands out and is consistently useful. The Wat can help greatly with Culture output and Border Expansion with Wide play, but will otherwise be a side bonus when you tech up to Education and build this University replacement. It gives you more incentive to do so, and that is a good thing because teching Universities early is important to Scientific Output.

Naresuan's Elephant is very situational in usefulness, but its high Combat Strength can help to deter War. Having some of these units around will raise your Military rating and make it harder for a Civ AI to decide to War with you. Their strength is nice, but still nothing against Cities. This is not a Civ focused on conquest, but rather playing defensively and having those City-State Allies help you to protect your lands, whatever Victory Condition you pursue. They would perform well for Cultural, Scientific, or Diplomatic Victory.

Siam plays well Wide or Tall - it is dependent on the lands available to you. With many Maritime City-States in the game, that is more free food - but it is the only Bonus that scales with more Cities. When playing Tall you will find the Culture from City-States is much more useful toward adopting new Social Policies, and will acquire new Policies every 10-15 Turns with a number of Allies. An early Religious CS Ally can easily help you to Found a Religion, and that is something you'll want to do in most games. Taking Tithe, along with Feed the World and something to boost Happiness would be ideal.

Here's a modified exerpt from the City-States Guide, modified to show what Siam would get from the three types of Alliances:

Cultured City-States for Siam
Gives +4.5/+9 Culture Ancient-Classical Era, +9/+18 Culture Medival-Renaissance Era, +19.5/+39 Culture from Industrial to Information Age. The Culture will only help with Social Policies and does not aid with border growth.

Maritime City-States
These Alliances always give the same amount of food, no matter the Era. For Friends, it's +3 Food in the Capital only, helping growth. With an Alliance, this jumps to +4.5 Food in the Capital and +1.5 in every other City, providing a boost in Growth to your entire Empire. The half-food does count, as you must reach a total to grow in Population and it's contributing to that total.

Religious City-States
Religious City-States give +3/+6 Faith in Ancient-Classical Era, +6/+12 in Medieval-Renaissance, and +12/+24 Faith in the Industrial, Modern, and Information Ages. Meeting them for the first time will result in your Civilization getting +8 Faith, helpful toward creating a Pantheon.

As you can see, they can get quite a lot from these three types. Having basic Faith-producing buildings and a Religion (even if not yours) in your Empire will allow you to purchase more Great People with Faith in the Industrial Era. The trouble is that you never know what types of City-States will be in a game, so their bonuses will vary wildly from game to game. Work with what you have and pursue the Victory that seems sensible.

Acquiring and maintaining CS Alliances is key with Siam, so always utilize your Trade Routes and take the Patronage tree to get even more from them. If you can meet all of them and Ally, a Diplomatic Victory is very plausible and likely the most well-suited Victory Condition. I played for a Scientific Win with them on Immortal and found it worked out for me. You can read the game journal here. Also read up on maximizing profit from Trade Routes.



Civilization Bonuses, Unique Units, Strategies and Openings
Sid Meier's Civ 5 is a deep strategy game. I created these individual Civilization Guides to highlight the strengths of their specials and unique units. If you have an opener or tip for playing this Civ that you would like to share with other readers, please use the comments form below. Some Guides are in need of update and will be improved to a new standard of quality or altered to reflect gameplay changes in G&K and Brave New World.
AmericaArabiaAssyriaAustriaAztecBabylonBrazil
CeltsChinaDutchEgyptEnglandFranceGermany
GreeceThe HunsIncaIndiaIndonesiaIroquoisJapan
KoreaMayaMongoliaMoroccoOttomanPersiaPoland
PolynesiaPortugalRomeRussiaShoshoneSiamSonghai
VeniceZulu

Share Tips and FAQs (6)

Our Sims Forum is the place to go for faster answers to questions and discussions about the game. Use the form below to share your own experiences and provide helpful tips to other readers.

terakhan says...
If you take both the policy from Patronage (+20% resting point), and the Papal Primacy religion option, as long as you spread your religion to every city state, you will essentially be permanent friends or better with each of them.

And with Siam's bonus, the friend zone is almost as good as the real thing.
15th September 2014 5:34pm
Volt says...
Siam are a great class.. I was on task for duel win from diplomatic and tech. In the end I had 38 votes and won by Tech.

I found getting a solid foundation start was really important. Pretty much getting all start techs so that I had max happiness and gold so i could buy out city states early. Cities grew massive with excess food as-well. Defiantly one of my fav civs. Other Civs that are worth a try are Indonesia and Poland!
2nd November 2014 7:53am
Toad says...
I won a culture game before as Siam. I had an entire north-south continent to myself from below the equator to the north pole. It was in all honesty my favorite game of civ ever.

I fought no wars. Absolutely no wars, and I was friends with all. My population was ludicrous due to geography alone, my alliances with all the city states exponentially increased my culture and food and thus population and territorial expansion.

I was basically the Switzerland of this world, except bigger Asian and better. I had pretty much every single wonder in my capital, and had the money to buy ANYTHING I needed.

The closest I had to a war was when Arabia Iroquois Korea and Aztecs teamed up on Polynesia, and I funneled Polynesia basically the largest military in the game. They survived that war with all but one of their cities (thanks Korea), and I paid off all the attackers with treaties favorable to myself.
31st July 2014 11:14pm
ShakaZulu13 says...
Siam is my favorite civ for the versatility alone. While most civs favor a map type or a victory path, Siam can win anywhere anyway. You have to adapt to your start and what city states are available tho. So scouting is extremely important.

Also should be mentioned, Venice and Austria are your enemies! they buy up your CS and leave your ability lacking. Take them out early! Only reason to play super aggressive with Siam.

Mongolia on the other hand is your best friend. You can sell him your horses, since your elephants don't need them, and let him take over CS. Since your elephants own cavalry, you can take them back, liberate them, and get their delegates for life without spending another penny. Bait and switch that *****. Also helps tremendously with your relations with other civs, who start calling you savior and liberator, making it easier to get those much needed world idealogies and religions for the Dip vic.
15th October 2014 1:14am
CaptainButtFloss17 says...
I've been playing against Siam on immortal for weeks now and I've never seen a more city-state competitive civ as the Siamese (maybe the Byzantines). They, along with other civs, like Indonesia or Byzantium, always seem to become the most OP in EVERY.SINGLE.GAME. True story!
23rd August 2014 1:11am
GreatDabbler25 says...
Siams passive does affect Militaristic CS, if they have exp buildings, Father Governs Children increases the exp of units from the CS
27th February 2016 12:38pm
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