Playing as Siam

I have just started playing as Siam as a change having played more recently as Poland or the Shoshone.

To put it mildly, I am not faring all that well.

Are there any tips that you would suggest? I have read the one about delaying Legalism. However that means I will be forced down the Piety, Liberty or Honor path when I would rather be going for Landed Elite or Monarchy. I'll give it a run as I don't seem to doing that flash as it is.

I personally don't delay legalism when I play Siam. Finishing tradition for the free aqueducts is too important.

Just play Siam however you want. Try to keep your eye on CS quests and that's about it. The extra culture from uni's is nice and their elephants are ok, but neither of these dictate that you change the way you would normally play the game. The bonuses are just kinda.. there.

On a side note, any civ that has a +flat bonus on a UB has the option to go wide. I have tried this and found it to be not much different than going wide with any other civ tbh. I guess the plus side is that since Wats give flat culture, going wide means you have a larger raw culture stock which makes you harder to influence when ideologies come around.

You don't really need to delay Legalism too much. Rush out 4 cities and prioritize building Monuments. Beeline Drama & Poetry and build Amphitheaters in your first 4 cities. Once the Amphitheaters are finished, you can take Legalism which will have no immediate effect, but will result in 4 free Wats (University replacement) on the turn that you finish Education. Start running scientists earlier and watch your research pace (and GS generation) start to take off.