Laser cladding is a directed energy deposition process, and can lead to high residual stresses, which can compromise the quality of the specimen. As a result, it is crucial to accurately predict and investigate the residual stress distribution in cladded parts and understand the mechanism of formation. In this study a thermo-mechanical metallurgical simulation model of the laser cladding process was developed for three different path strategies with respect to the deposition sequence and direction for a single layer, thin wall hexagon with inner junctions to investigate the formation of residual stress. The study was extended to a five layer scenario. A comparison of two types of computational techniques, the detailed transient approach and the imposed thermal cycle approach, was performed. Consistent results were observed when comparing the resultant stress patterns. Subsequently, the imposed thermal cycle method was applied for the five layer models. A preheat scenario is explored. This reduced the computational cost to great extent, but the stress patterns were not similar. The differences between the implemented computational techniques are described as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each. Knowledge obtained from these case studies provides a foundation for efficient and rapid optimization of laser cladding processes, with the aim of minimizing residual stress in both simple and complex laser cladding structures.