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The Hungarian people represent a civilization in Civilization VI: Gathering Storm. They are led by Matthias Corvinus, under whom their default colors are dark green and orange.

The Hungarians' civilization ability is Pearl of the Danube, which provides a 50% Production Production bonus when constructing District District and buildings across a River from a City Center. Their unique unit is the Huszár (which replaces the Cavalry), and their unique building is the Thermal Bath (which replaces the Zoo).

Strategy[]

Starting bias: Tier 3 towards Rivers, tier 5 towards Geothermal Fissures

Hungary is a powerful domination civilization at all points in the game, but is very reliant on city-states. Their ability to levy troops and continue suzerainty with city-states for basically free is incredibly powerful and is Hungary's primary strength, capable of making Hungary one of the most powerful civilizations in the game without even needing the Pearl of the Danube.

Pearl of the Danube[]

When thinking of Hungary as a civilization, players are less likely to think of this ability, but it does not mean this is weak. 50% Production Production for not only districts but also its buildings is absolutely huge, making Hungarians not only conquerors but also builders. In the early game, it may be wise to move your initial Settler to a position in which Pearl of the Danube can be more effectively used. Bends in rivers can allow Hungary to use Pearl of the Danube to boost the construction on more than one tile, and in best case scenarios, up to five tiles.

It is important to consider on a case-by-case basis which District Districts you want to focus on first, but there are a few standouts which are usually superior. For example, this bonus can offer a great boon to the number of Campuses you can get going in a short time, which in concert with Hungary's start bias towards Geothermal Fissures can give Hungary a significant early Science Science lead. You can play off of this in many different ways, but one of the best is to get a quick start on Castles to unlock the Black Army. Naturally, you will next need to actually build the Black Army (unless you trained some Horsemen beforehand, and your Gold Gold is better spent on levying city-state units), so construct some Industrial Zones to quickly pump out this unit. The final district that should be high on your list of priorities is the Commercial Hub, as Hungary often finds itself in need of Gold Gold to levy and upgrade city-state units even with their discounts to both. All other districts can be safely disregarded unless you've got time and precious Production Production to spare or you're looking for an unorthodox victory path such as Cultural or Religious.

Overall, this is certainly a supplementary bonus rather than a central one, but the potential gains are worth a Hungary player's attention. Take your time when settling cities, and your reward will be prosperous and productive cities come later eras.

Raven King[]

Matthias Corvinus' leader ability is clearly the signature bonus of Hungary, as it really defines their playstyle and Victory path.

Your first fifty turns should be used for extensive scouting and early conquest of a neighbor. Scouting will reveal city-states, and taking Diplomatic League as a policy card can help gain suzerainty of nearby city-states quickly. For a Tier 1 government, choose Oligarchy, as this will aid your early conquests. For your Tier 2 government, Hungary may be the only civilization in the game that is better off with Monarchy than Merchant Republic or Theocracy, as the extra influence points from Monarchy will help them gain even more city-states. Theocracy is the second possibility, although this is only recommended if you have founded a successful religion. For your Tier 3 government, Hungary should obviously choose Fascism.

There are several techs that Hungary should research as soon as possible. First is Animal Husbandry, as this will reveal Horses Horses, necessary for Matthias Corvinus' Black Army. Finding a good location for a second city with Horses Horses, if your Capital Capital does not have any, is imperative. Second is Iron Working. This will provide upgrades for not just your Warriors to Swordsmen, but also any city-states you control. Remember that you still need a little bit of Iron Iron to upgrade them, but you do not need to bring these units to your territory for the upgrade. With Swordsmen and the assistance of 1-3 city-states, you should easily be able to roll over any nearby neighbors and conquer them. You can also be extraordinarily aggressive with these Swordsmen, as they are not yours. Third is Currency. Hungary does not have any diplomatic bonuses other than continually levying troops, so a strong income is necessary. Using Pearl of the Danube to build your first powerful Commercial Hub will be a great power spike for Hungary.

Maintaining your Science Science output and getting those Strategic Resources up and running should be of utmost importance. Even with Matthias Corvinus' 75% upgrade cost reduction, upgrading your entire levied military can be quite expensive in a long run. Policy cards that reduce the Gold Gold cost of upgrading units even further definitely come in handy.

Since the 75% discount to Strategic Resources when upgrading units and the associated rounding in the calculation means you actually do not need any resource to upgrade units into a unit that requires per turn resource maintenance (the most important upgrade when it comes to levied units is from Musketman into Infantry). However, if you do not have the required resource to maintain these units, they will have a penalty to their Strength Combat Strength. For instance, if you have no Oil Oil in reserve and gaining 0 Oil Oil per turn, meanwhile having 5 Infantry units and 5 Artillery units, which are all using Oil Oil, each of them will receive a penalty of 5+5=10 Strength Combat Strength. Overall, even if you do not have the Strategic Resource required to maintain your army, as long as you keep the number of units that require Strategic Resources low, you will gain more Strength Combat Strength from upgrading than the penalty. When late game comes, considering you cannot form Corps and Armies from levied units, it is important you have an army of your own to deal with enemy Corps and Armies.

The weakest era for Hungary is the Ancient Era, especially before they have the techs above and before they have any city-states under their control. Afterwards, their gameplay is very simple. They do not need strong Science Science, Culture Culture, or Faith Faith. They need only for their closest city-states to randomly produce units (which they will be doing anyway) to drown their neighbors in blood. Keep in mind that each further unit upgrade is another power spike for Hungarian and Hungarian levied units, so any tech that unlocks an upgraded unit should be your scientific priority. Beelining expensive techs such as Military Science could be useful. Faith Faith generation is only important if you have a religion, and if you choose Defender of the Faith over Crusade, a great deal of Inquisitors will keep your combat edge up for a long time. Once your closest neighbors have been conquered (1-3 civs), you should have no trouble keeping your advantage for the rest of the game. Even your city-state allies will not be as necessary to maintain relations with; the sheer size of your empire will grant you endless units and districts, making up for the lack of bonus Science Science/Faith Faith/Culture Culture generation in any way. To protect the sheer size of this empire, of course, use the Thermal Baths, as well as trying to befriend city-states and recruit the Great Merchants that provide Amenities Amenities (Buenos Aires, Zanzibar, John Spilsbury, Helena Rubinstein, Estée Lauder, and Levi Strauss). Hungary may also try to build a few Wonders, namely the Colosseum, Alhambra, and Terracotta Army for conquest and amenity upkeep, and the Országház, Kilwa Kisiwani, and Apadana for Envoy Envoys and city-states relations. Another great addition to your empire would be the Foreign Ministry building that is unlocked for your Government Plaza when you adopt a tier 2 government in the Medieval Era. This will cut the cost of levying troops from city states by half, saving you a lot of money initially and in the long run.

Synergy between Amani and Matthias Corvinus[]

There is a trick that you can perform with Amani, as long as she has the final Puppeteer title. Below are the steps of this trick:

  1. Get the final Puppeteer title for Amani (mandatory) and build the Foreign Ministry (not mandatory but highly recommended).
  2. Establish Amani in a City-state you are not the Suzerain of (let's call it City-state A), so that you become A's Suzerain.
  3. Levy the army of City-state A, you gain 2 permanent Envoy Envoys at A.
  4. After levying, in the same turn, move Amani to a random City-state B. You will lose Suzerainty of City-state A as a result, and consequently lose control of the levied army.
  5. Still in the same turn, move Amani back to A. She will be established there immediately. The Governors are coded this way so that players are not punished if they accidentally reassign a Governor away and then regret it, so as long as you move Amani away and move her back to A within the same turn, she will be immediately re-established at A.
  6. Levy the army of A again, gaining extra 2 Envoy Envoys at A, rinse and repeat.

An important thing to remember is that from step 3 to step 6, you need to perform them within the same turn. This effectively allows Matthias to buy Envoy Envoys with Gold Gold, while no one else can. The Foreign Ministry, therefore, is important to make levying troops a lot cheaper. Overtime, you can move Amani around to buy Envoy Envoys at every City-state, as long as you have enough Gold Gold for it. Since the cost of levying units from a City-state is equal to the total Production Production cost of the army (read more here), this strategy works much better with City-states that have a small army.

This trick may be considered an unfair exploit to other players, so in a multiplayer game, remember to be considerate and respectful to the rules of the group and discuss this beforehand.

Huszár[]

Between the two unique units of Hungary when led by Matthias Corvinus, the Huszár is harder to utilize effectively, since you cannot control if your opponents will like you enough to form Alliances with you, especially in single player games when your conquests can start as early as the Classical Era right after Swordsmen are unlocked. Its only major upside, despite having very limited synergy with Hungary as a domination powerhouse, is that it has 3 extra Strength Combat Strength compared to a standard Cavalry at a negligible Production Production cost increase. If you are able to get someone to declare friendship with you before your warmongering starts and appease them enough to establish an alliance with you when the Industrial Era comes, the Huszár's bonus might be somewhat more noticeable; otherwise, this unit is rather unremarkable, with its bonus too rarely applicable to be significant.

Black Army[]

As a domination powerhouse with 2 unique units, Hungary under Matthias Corvinus has much stronger synergy with the Black Army than its upgrade, the Huszár, despite its bonus being less wieldy than its upgrade. Hungary is a unique domination civilization since they are reliant on levying city-states' troops to be effective, the Black Army makes the Hungarian edge in Medieval Era combat even sharper by playing right to its strength: starting with higher Strength Combat Strength than a standard Courser and getting even stronger with every adjacent levied unit. Remember that units levied by Hungary receive an extra 2 Movement Movement, so your mercenary army will have no problem of keeping up with the Black Army to sustain this bonus. You can use the Black Army to do all the work thanks to their outstanding strength, or just use the levied army to protect the number of your own units and use the Black Army to pillage or claim strategic hexes in the back.

Thermal Bath[]

The Thermal Bath is an interesting replacement for the standard Zoo, a rather underutilized building in an underwhelming and often neglected district. This building encourages the Hungarians to look for and settle near Volcanoes where Geothermal Fissures are available (likely a simple task thanks to their sizable start bias towards this terrain feature). Under various conditions, the Thermal Bath supplies as many Amenities Amenities as or even twice as many as the Stadium at only three quarters of the production cost, not to mention extra regional Production Production bonus and early Tourism Tourism, thus if you manage to settle near a Geothermal Fissure, you can easily make all of your cities within 6 tiles ecstatic without wasting 480 more Production Production on building a Stadium for more Amenities Amenities.

Unlike the normal Zoo, the Thermal Bath does not grant +1 Science Science to Marsh and Rainforest tiles in the city.

Victory Types[]

It goes without saying that Hungary was made for conquest as they can quickly muster a powerful, up-to-date army without having to worry about accumulating strategic resources. Raven King also helps Hungary generate Envoy Envoys independently from the Civic tree, which allows them to compete for City-states and attempt a Diplomatic Victory, especially if they can build the Országház.

However, as previously mentioned, Pearl of the Danube is an underrated ability, and given the right situation, Hungarian riverside settlements can quickly grow to help them overtake the enemies on any victory path they deem suitable.

Counter Strategy[]

The weak point of Hungary is the reliance on City-state relations to be effective, in both Diplomacy and Domination. If you are the next door neighbor of Hungary, you are most likely the first victim of their conquest, because even when Hungary does not aim for a Domination Victory, conquering for extra cities is never completely off their agenda. If that is the case, you need to place extra focus on exploration to scout out City-state and establish your diplomatic foothold with them. Once you let Hungary become the Suzerain, it is very hard to flip the City-state back since they can boost their Envoy Envoy power by levying troops. If the City-state quest is too hard to complete for you to earn Envoy Envoy with them, the safest way is to conquer them outright before Hungary amasses enough Gold Gold for levying and upgrade troops to start their Domination game. Hungary is also very weak in the Ancient Era, before they have all the techs they need to be successful. The Aztecs, Sumeria, and Egypt are Hungary's worst enemies, as all of them have a powerful Ancient era Unique Unit, and should be able to conquer Hungary outright.

Civilopedia entry[]

For nearly a millennium, the Kingdom of Hungary was one of the major powers of Central Europe, central to the history and influence of the rulers and kingdoms of the region. Multiethnic and multilinguistic, the kingdom's cultural contributions and military history were critical to the interchange between Western and Eastern Europe. The kingdom is shot through with rivers, including the mighty Danube (which bisects Budapest), and includes the open plains of the Carpathian Basin, fringed with a few high ranges of mountains. Its thermal springs have attracted attention since the time of the Romans. Sitting astride the major cross-land routes of Europe, the Kingdom's strategic position made it a prize for royal houses and ambitious nobles alike.

When the Magyars under Arpad established the Principality of Hungary in the tenth century, they laid aside their semi-nomadic lifestyle and its accompanying cycles of raiding in favor of a more feudal existence, although they retained elements of their previous lifestyle, including introducing Slavic loanwords from their new subjects into their vernacular. The Kingdom itself was established by Stephen I, King of the newly-created Kingdom of Hungary, and a saint of the church for his efforts at cementing Christianity as the official religion. The territory of the Kingdom of Hungary became known as the “Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen” in synecdoche (although legally, the various crown lands had specific legal status related to the monarch).

The nobility of the Kingdom of Hungary enjoyed a high degree of liberty, and the king was relatively constrained after Andras II issued the Golden Bull of 1222. Nobles could not be taxed, could disobey the king if he acted outside the law, did not need to go to war beyond the borders of the kingdom, and established something of an equality of title between nobles, rather than a strong hierarchy. Similarities between the Golden Bull and the Magna Carta in England are notable.

The Mongol invasion of Europe under Subutai in 1241 was disastrous for the Kingdom (as it was for much of Europe). King Bela IV built a series of border fortresses to prevent a future invasion, but further conflict with other European powers weakened the kingdom and eventually the Arpad dynasty died out in 1301. The Angevins ruled for almost a century afterwards, followed by a series of non-dynastic rulers, including Holy Roman Emperors.

As the Middle Ages came to an end, and the Early Modern Period was just a set of ideas being discussed in Italy, Matthias Corvinus was elected to the throne by the Diet. Under his reign, the Kingdom expanded militarily and reformed the administration. His reign is viewed as one of the golden ages of the Kingdom of Hungary—an era which came to a crashing end at the disastrous Battle of Mohacs between Suleiman I of the Ottomans and Louis II of Hungary.

The Battle of Mohacs is one of the most significant battles fought in Europe. A tiny Hungarian army, organized in an obsolete feudal force of heavy knights and conscript infantry (which had abandoned military innovations the Black Army had pioneered a generation before!) was crushed by an Ottoman army almost twice it size, organized around the modern principles of artillery and a spine of elite, musket-armed Janissaries. King Louis of Hungary and a huge portion of the Hungarian nobility were slaughtered on the battlefield. After the battle, the Ottomans partitioned the Kingdom of Hungary with the Holy Roman Empire, and used it as a buffer state against the Holy Roman Empire.

For the next three and a half centuries, the Kingdom of Hungary was often in conflict between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, never strong enough to exert its own will, but too powerful to be ignored in the geopolitical calculations of Central Europe. The traditional liberties of the nobility were enshrined in tradition, and the Hapsburg rulers of the Holy Roman Empire were frequently forced to reiterate these rights in exchange for Hungarian support, either political or military. Consequently the spirit of Hungarian identity was never entirely extinguished.

This independent spirit led to a number of attempted uprising and open rebellions against Hapsburg control. During the War of Spanish Succession, the Transylvanian prince Francis II Rakoczi staged a rebellion (creatively called Rakoczi's Rebellion) between 1703-1711, but was unsuccessful due to a lack of allies and foreign support. The European revolutions of 1848 almost saw Hungary gain its long-awaited independence. With revolution breaking out across their holdings, the Hapsburgs nearly lost complete control of Hungary to a young generation of ardent patriots. Only through an alliance between Russia and Austria could the Hapsburgs regain their original control. In the Compromise of 1867, the Hapsburg Empire officially became a dual monarchy: Austria-Hungary. Finally, the Hapsburgs were forced to recognize the centrality of the Kingdom of Hungary to their empire.

The Kingdom dissolved after World War I as part of the breakup of the Hapsburg Empire. Short-lived republics governed in the interwar years, and in the turmoil leading up to World War 2 the kingdom was re-established by resurgent right-wing forces. Hungary joined the Axis powers during World War 2 (a particularly dark chapter in Hungary's history). The kingdom was occupied by the advancing Soviet forces in 1944, ending the Kingdom of Hungary (although not the nation of Hungary) for good.

The capital of Hungary, Budapest, is one of the great cities of Europe, with magnificent architecture, a vibrant culture, and cosmopolitan fashions. Formed from three cities (Buda, Pest, and Obuda or “Old Buda”), and the site of settlements dating back to the Celts, the city carries its long and fascinating history into the present day. The city's central region along the Danube is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Cities[]

Citizens[]

Males Females Modern males Modern females
Árpi Eszter Ákos Ancsi
Botond Enikõ Daniel Bea
Gergő Fruzsi Erik Bernadett
Ervin Renata Hugo Szabina
István Petra Kristóf Lili
Tamás Lívia Krisztián Nóri
János Maja Patrik Melinda
Marton Dorka Márkó Rebeka
Paszkál Bianka Roland Klaudia
Zsolt Evelin Zalan Vivien

Trivia[]

Gallery[]

Videos[]

Related achievements[]

The Laurels of Virtues and Letters
The Laurels of Virtues and Letters
Win a game as Matthias Corvinus
Possible translation of this Matthias quote: "Scholars, how happy are you! You strive not after blood-stained glory nor monarchs' crowns, but for the laurels of poetry and virtue."
Shield of Christianity
Shield of Christianity
As Hungary, have Christianity as your dominant religion and defeat a unit who's Civilization's dominant religion is not Christianity.
Hungary was one of the countries that stopped the Ottomans' advance in the Battle of Vienna.

See also[]

External links[]

Civilization VI Civilizations [edit]
AmericanArabianAustralian1AztecBabylonian1BrazilianByzantine1Canadian GS-OnlyChineseCree R&F-OnlyDutch R&F-OnlyEgyptianEnglishEthiopian1FrenchGallic1Georgian R&F-OnlyGermanGran Colombian1GreekHungarian GS-OnlyIncan GS-OnlyIndianIndonesian1JapaneseKhmer1KongoleseKorean R&F-OnlyMacedonian1Malian GS-OnlyMāori GS-OnlyMapuche R&F-OnlyMayan1Mongolian R&F-OnlyNorwegianNubian1Ottoman GS-OnlyPersian1Phoenician GS-OnlyPolish1Portuguese1RomanRussianScottish R&F-OnlyScythianSpanishSumerianSwedish GS-OnlyVietnamese1Zulu R&F-Only
1 Requires DLC

R&F-Only Added in the Rise and Fall expansion pack.
GS-Only Added in the Gathering Storm expansion pack.

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