Hmm... as a "semicore player", I tried a test Siam game with Incense in the starting location and wanted to see whether it makes sense for me to aim at the free Wats or just farm the incense and sell it to boost early production and cashflow.
I had my capital and another city with a lot of hammer/gold/culture. However by the time I could build wats (8 turns in my first 2 cities), they cost me like 50 turns in city 3 and 4, which were generally not producing a lot. I did not build them there. Rather I used some cities I conquered from enemies to place wats.
My (kind of standard) focus is getting the luxes, selling them, try to ally with all available city states, fill out patronage (schlaticism asap), this will bring science far ahead of any other civ, even without RAs. Also culture wise I keep the pace of leading civs that way. I rarely use rationalism, that may be an area of improvement. I always have the feeling that it is more useful to fill out an additional patronage policy vs. a rationalism one if I have at least 5 or 6 allies. Is that correct?
It will depend a little on available resources in the GOTM on whether I will try to aim at the free wats.
Welcome to GoTM. Very pleased to have Mac players amongst us.
