Following this guide requires the Gathering Storm expansion.

It also assumes you have all other Civ 6 content, listed below, though it is not necessary to have these to utilise the key strategies of each civ.

• Pre-Rise and Fall content packs
  
  • Vikings, Poland, Australia, Persia/Macedon, Nubia, Khmer/Indonesia
• Rise and Fall Expansion
  
• New Frontier content packs
  
  • Maya/Grand Colombia, Ethiopia, Byzantium/Gauls, Babylon, Vietnam/Kublai Khan, Portugal

These content packs include exclusive civs, city-states, districts, buildings, wonders, natural wonders, resources, and a disaster, but not core game mechanics - all you need is the base game and the Gathering Storm expansion for those.

What is the role of a leader? Should we avoid controversy and respect the wishes of the powerful within our realms? It would surely avoid bloodshed in the short-term yet leave the realm weak. But to exert personal power over all would be little more than selfish tyranny. No, a leader must be able to earn respect so that we may bring about justice. We should serve the people as the people serve us.


This guide is divided into multiple sections explaining how best to use and play against this specific civ.

• The Outline details the mechanics of how the civilization's unique features work and what their start bias is if they have one.
  
• The Victory Skew section describes to what extent the civ (and its individual leaders where applicable) is inclined towards particular victory routes. This is not a rating of its power, but an indicator of the most appropriate route to victory.
  
• Multiple sections for Uniques explain in detail how to use each special bonus of the civilization.
  
• Administration describes some of the most synergistic governments, government buildings, policy cards, age bonuses, pantheons, religious beliefs, wonders, city-states and Great People for the civ. Only the ones with the most synergy with the civ's uniques are mentioned - these are not necessarily the "best" choices when playing as the civ for a given victory route.
  
• Finally, the Counter-Strategies discusses how best to play against the civ, including a consideration of leader agendas if the civ is controlled by a computer.

Note that all costs (production, science, etc.) mentioned within the guide assume a game played on the normal speed settings. To modify these values for other game speeds:

• Online: Divide by 2
  
• Quick: Divide by 1.5
  
• Epic: Multiply by 1.5
  
• Marathon: Multiply by 3

Terminology used in this guide and not in-game is explained here.

AoE (Area of Effect) - Bonuses or penalties that affect multiple tiles in a set radius. Positive examples include Factories (which offer production to cities within a 6 tile radius unless they're within range of another building of the same type) and a negative example is nuclear weapons, which cause devastation over a wide radius.

Beelining - Obtaining a technology or civic quickly by only researching it and its prerequisites. Some deviation is allowed in the event that taking a technology or civic off the main track provides some kind of advantage that makes up for that (either a source of extra science/culture or access to something necessary for a eureka or inspiration boost)

CA (Civ Ability) - The unique ability of a civilization, shared by all its leaders.

Compact empires - Civs with cities close together (typically 3-4 tile gaps between city centres). This is useful if you want to make use of districts that gain adjacency bonuses from other districts, or to maximise the potential of area-of-effect bonuses later in the game.

Dispersed empires - Civs with cities that are spread out (typically 5-6 tile gaps between city centres). Civs with unique tile improvements generally favour a more dispersed empire in order to make use of them, as do civs focused on wonder construction.

GPP - Short for Great Person Points. Districts, buildings and wonders generate these points and with enough you can claim a Great Person of the corresponding type.

GWAM - Collective name for Great Writers, Artists and Musicians. All of them can produce Great Works that offer tourism and culture, making them important to anyone seeking a cultural victory.

LA (Leader Ability) - The unique ability of a specific leader. Usually but not always, they tend to be more specific in scope than civ abilities. Some leader abilities come with an associated unique unit or infrastucture.

Prebuilding - Training a unit with the intention of upgrading it to a desired unit later. An example is building Slingers and upgrading them once Archery is unlocked.

Sniping - Targeting a specific city for capture directly, ignoring other enemy cities along the way. Typically used in the context of "capital sniping" - taking a civ's original capital as quickly as possible to contribute towards domination victory without leading to a drawn-out war.

Start bias - The kind of terrain, terrain feature or resource a civilization is more likely to start near. This is typically used for civilizations that have early bonuses dependent on a particular terrain type. There are five tiers of start bias; civs with a tier 1 start bias are placed before civs of tier 2 and so on, increasing their odds of receiving a favourable starting location.

Super-uniques - Unique units that do not replace any others. Examples include India's Varu and Mongolia's Keshigs.

Tall empires - Empires that emphasise city development over expansion, usually resulting in fewer, but bigger, cities.

Uniques - Collective name for civ abilities, leader abilities, unique units, unique buildings, unique districts and unique improvements.

UA (Unique Ability) - A collective name for leader abilities and civ abilities.

UB (Unique Building) - A special building which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal building and offers a special advantage on top.

UD (Unique District) - A special district which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal district, costs half as much to build and offers some unique advantages on top.

UI (Unique Improvement) - A special improvement that can only be built by the Builders of a single civilization. "UI" always refers to unique improvements in my guides and not to "user interface" or "unique infrastructure".

UU (Unique Unit) - A special unit that may only be trained by a single civilization, and in some cases only when that civilization is led by a specific leader.

Wide empires - Empires that emphasise expansion over city development, usually resulting in more, but smaller, cities.

Hungary has a tier 3 start bias to rivers, and a tier 5 start bias to geothermal fissures. Rivers are necessary for making the most of the Hungarian civ ability, while Hungary's Thermal Bath UB requires geothermal fissures for maximum effectiveness. Because geothermal fissures only appear near continental boundaries, Hungary will often start close to a second continent.

• +50% production when constructing districts and buildings adjacent to, but the other side of a river from, their city centre.

• When levying a city-state's units, gain two envoys with the respective city-state.
  
• Levied city-state units gain +2 movement points and +5 strength.
  
• Levied city-state units cost 75% less gold and strategic resources to upgrade.
  
  • This stacks multiplicatively, not additively, with appropriate policy cards, so upgrading units will never be free.

A medieval-era light cavalry unit which replaces the Courser

*Purchasing units with faith requires the Grand Master's Chapel government building, which requires either the medieval-era Divine Right or renaissance-era Exploration civics.

• Costs 205 production/820 gold/410 faith, up from 200/800/400 respectively (+2.5%)
  
• Costs 260 gold to upgrade to from a Horseman, up from 250 (+4%)

• Costs 10 horses, down from 20 (-50%)
  
• 49 strength, up from 46
  
• +3 strength for every adjacent controlled levied unit.

An industrial-era light cavalry unit which replaces the Cavalry

*Purchasing units with faith requires the Grand Master's Chapel government building, which requires either the medieval-era Divine Right or renaissance-era Exploration civics.

**If you have no access to aluminium, you may continue to train Huszárs even beyond researching Synthetic Materials.

• Costs 335 production/1340 gold/670 faith, up from 330/1320/660 respectively (+1.5%)

• 65 strength, up from 62
  
• +3 strength for every alliance Hungary has active.
  
• Costs 540 gold to upgrade to a Helicopter, down from 550 (-2%)

A industrial-era Entertainment Complex building which replaces the Zoo

• Does not apply science to rainforest or marsh tiles.

• Provides 2 amenities for cities within 6 tiles, up from 1 amenity, so long as they are not in range of another Thermal Bath.
  
• Offers 2 production to cities within 6 tiles, so long as they are not in range of another Thermal Bath.
  
• Adds 2 amenities and 3 tourism to its city if it has a geothermal fissue in the city limits.

In this section, the civ is subjectively graded based on how much it leans towards a specific victory type - not how powerful it is. Scores of 3 or more mean the civ has at least a minor advantage towards the victory route.


Hungary can have a great shot at cultural victories - but it's not because of the small potential tourism bonus from Thermal Baths. It's thanks to Hungary's ability to build Theatre Squares and their buildings at a rapid rate if they're directly over a river from their cities' centre. That being said, the effectiveness of Hungary in culture victories can be extremely map-dependent - if you don't have access to many riverside city spots, you might want to go for domination or diplomacy instead.

Diplomacy is a great victory route for Hungary particularly if you're unable to launch an early war (and hence can secure some alliances). The ability to get envoys every time you levy units could result in you being suzerain over a huge number of city-states, granting a lot of diplomatic favours. The Hussar unit incentivises forming alliances if possible. Finally, the Hungarian civ ability works particularly well with Commercial Hubs as a strong source of gold for things like aid emergencies.

Domination is Hungary's strongest route, largely down to Matthias Corvinus' leader ability. By granting you access to fast, strong levied units which can easily be upgraded, you can accumulate a huge powerful force to sweep over rival lands with ease. That being said, Hungary's strength in domination works against their strength in diplomacy, so if you start the game with a lot of conquest, be prepared to commit to that path.

Religion is surprisingly effective for Hungary thanks to the civ ability, which can greatly speed up the construction of Holy Sites and their buildings. The catch is riverside Holy Site locations tend to have poor adjacency bonuses. While Hungary lacks any direct faith bonuses, getting extra envoys from Matthias' leader ability can help you get more faith sooner from religious city-states.

Finally, Science can work reasonably well. While Hungary loses the potential for science from Zoos, they can develop Campuses and Industrial Zones rapidly in certain riverside cities. That being said, the best Campus adjacency spots are often not at riverside locations - though Hungary's geothermal fissure bias helps.

While not as fast to build as Mali's Suguba, I can still get this Commercial Hub up at a fast pace.

Hungary's civ ability is a powerful bonus for city development all through the game, made even better by the fact Matthias Corvinus' leader ability allows you to be competitive in warfare at a low production cost. Together, the two abilities can make Hungary simultaneously an effective warmonger and an effective city-builder.

That being said, the ability is limited by your access to rivers. Only cities positioned directly next to rivers can benefit at all, but for the best bonuses, you'll want to place cities in river meanders or confluences where possible.


My situation at the start of a game. While I could have settled my capital right where my Settler started, there would have only been one eligible spot for Hungary's civ ability. But my moving west and south-west, I can settle my capital in a location with four eligible tiles!


Unfortunately, you can't always find a good river spot. In that circumstance, you might want to use your non-riverside cities for things like Builders while your riverside cities are left free to develop their districts to maximise early-game production efficiency.


Hungary's civ ability can be used for any district except for Harbours, Water Parks and Encampments, though some districts benefit more than others. Let's go through each of the eligible districts in alphabetical order, and discuss how Hungary might use the ability...



While you generally shouldn't be reserving tiles early on just so you can have fast-building Aerodromes later in the game, the ability to develop them quickly can still be effective. With the atomic-era Rapid Deployment civic, you can airlift units between any two Airports you control. You can levy city-state units and then airlift them to where they need to be.



Given the cities that benefit most from Aqueducts won't be able to benefit from Hungary's civ ability, and Aqueducts are cheaper to develop than most other districts, Hungary's civ ability and this district don't go particularly well together. If you're building Aqueducts, generally you should position them in tiles that don't receive the production boost so you have it available for speciality districts.



Campuses are important districts throughout the game due to the way to complement Hungary's strengths in warfare - not just in unlocking the two UUs sooner, but also enabling upgrading of levied city-state units sooner as well. However, riverside spots often don't have the best adjacency bonuses for Campuses. Consider carefully whether you want to maximise production speed or adjacency where the two conflict - as a general rule, if you're only intending to build the base district for now and not the Library, then it's better to seek out high adjacency than maximise your production speed. Similarly, if you lack eligible tiles for the district production boost and a good adjacency bonus is on offer elsewhere, then go for the adjacency bonus.



Unless it's unavoidable and you really need the strategic benefits, you generally shouldn't use your precious eligible tiles on Canals. Canals can be built rapidly anyway by training Military Engineers in other cities, and using them to provide charges.



Commercial Hubs have perfect synergy with Hungary's civ ability. Commercial Hubs are already ideally placed on riverside tiles due to the +2 adjacency bonus, while you'll need a lot of gold to support Matthias Corvinus' leader ability. Fast construction of both Commercial Hubs and Markets will make it a lot easier to maximise your trade route capacity, which is great for supporting newly-founded cities, weaker conquered cities, cities building wonders, or even just non-river-adjacent cities that need to catch up with development.



For cities with a higher number of eligible tiles, having a Dam can be useful - with the modern-era Electricity technology, you can build a Hydroelectric Dam for an affordable, effective source of power.



Works beautifully with Hungary's civ ability, as it can provide extra envoys and protects adjacent districts from Spies. Always place this across the river from a city centre if you can to save time developing it and its buildings.



Any city with a Geothermal Fissure within its limits should aim to build an Entertainment Complex, as it'll be eligible for the full bonus of the Thermal Bath UB. It's not a bad idea to build Entertainment Complexes on eligible tiles for Hungary's production bonus if possible, as that'll ensure you can get more amenities sooner - though it will mean that the Thermal Bath won't be able to reach as many cities as it could if it was further from the city centre.



An excellent district to use in conjunction with Hungary's civ ability as Government Plaza buildings tend to be relatively expensive. Particularly helpful for building the Foreign Ministry sooner.

Early in the game, you can try securing an early religion by using Hungary's civ ability to rapidly develop Holy Sites and Shrines, and from there get lots of Great Prophet Points. You can also use the River Goddess pantheon to make those quickly-built riverside Holy Sites add both +2 housing and +2 amenities. All that being said, aside from fast Holy Site construction, Hungary has no advantages in the religious game. Using precious district capacity on Holy Sites rather than something to complement their other strengths might not be a good idea. Furthermore, riverside spots often don't provide the best adjacency bonuses for Holy Sites, and Holy Sites are one of the cheaper speciality districts to fully develop. As such, even if you intend to build lots of Holy Sites, consider carefully if they're worth using your riverside spots for.



Not a bad choice once you've got a Commercial Hub and Campus in place in a city. Industrial Zones can get adjacency bonuses fairly easily (from strategic resources, quarries, mines, districts and so forth) so placing them in an eligible spot for a production boost doesn't necessarily mean giving up the best adjacency bonuses. Fast construction of Factories and the various Power Plants will also help you make your empire in general more productive sooner. However, building an Industrial Zone closer to the city centre means its radius can't reach as many cities.



Considering Neighbourhoods are cheap and spammable, it's probably not the best use of your precious production-boosted tiles.



Preserves work best away from the city centre as you'll want to surround them with unimproved tiles rather than districts. As such, you'll rarely get much use out of Hungary's civ ability here without limiting its potential for other districts.



Spaceports are one of the more expensive parts of the space race, but unless you're seeking a scientific victory, there's not much point in building them.



The best Theatre Square adjacency bonuses aren't terrain-specific, so a riverside spot is as good as any other. In a typical game as Hungary you won't need loads of Theatre Squares, but it's nice to get them built and developed a fair bit faster.


Hungary's civ ability is best-used for speeding up the development of the Government Plaza, the Diplomatic Quarter, Commercial Hubs, Campuses, Entertainment Complexes and Industrial Zones, though its versatility allows it to support any victory route you care to aim towards if need be. The Commercial Hub boost in particular will be helpful as a source of cash for Matthias Corvinus' gold-reliant leader ability.

Thanks to a strong, fast levied unit, I can deal with those Barbarians in no time!


While Hungary's civ ability offers an effective and versatile supportive bonus, Matthias Corvinus' leader ability is the real core of Hungarian gameplay and is useful for diplomatic and domination victory goals alike. Smart usage can potentially make you suzerain over most or all of the city-states in the game, giving you either a massive diplomatic favour advantage or a huge, fast and strong conquering army - without the typical production investment needed!


The earliest turns as Hungary should be dedicated to scouting. Training a couple of Scout units will really help you track down city-states, of which there'll on average be three in your starting continent. As Hungary's start bias towards geothermal fissures tends to place them on a continental boundary, scouting in multiple locations at once can often uncover more city-states than even that. That being said, sometimes you'll be unlucky and uncover very few city-states.

Save up the gold you gather early in the game. Levying units from city-states can be moderately costly early in the game, but the earlier you're able to do that, the better.

Discovering a city-state before any other civ gives you +1 starting envoy (if you can't manage this, take a detour on the civics tree to Mysticism and you can easily secure a bonus envoy). By using your first Governor promotion on Governor Amani (the Diplomat) and sending them to a city-state you already have an envoy present in, you'll usually be able to secure suzerain status once she's established. Then, spend some cash to levy the units!


While Jerusalem only has a small number of Warriors right now, it's still very worthwhile to levy these units. The gold cost of levying city-states is equal to the combined production cost of all their military units.

These levied units can keep you safe from early rushes and rapidly destroy Barbarian encampments, leaving your cities free to focus on districts, Settlers and Builders instead of military units.

Once you've levied the units in a city-state, the bonus two envoys will be enough for you to keep your suzerain status even after moving Governor Amani. This allows you to move her to a new city-state and repeat the process to get as many city-states as possible in your grasp. Aside from all the lovely suzerain bonuses, it'll also help you rush through envoy bonuses, which Hungary's civ ability will help you make full use of.


Early on, city-states tend to like to train Warriors along with the occasional ranged unit. While decent at handling Barbarians, they're not necessarily enough to take on other civs. As such, you'll want to get these Warriors upgraded. Researching Bronze Working reasonably early will uncover where iron spots are - if you have any in lands you're able to settle, secure it so once you have Iron Working you can upgrade all those Warriors into Swordsmen. If you don't have iron, then you might want to wait until you have access to the Black Army UU before launching wars - that is, unless your opponent is close and vulnerable.

It'll also help to take the Oligarchy government for its +4 strength bonus for melee infantry units like Warriors and Swordsmen. Combined with Matthias Corvinus' leader ability, you can have Swordsmen slightly slower but slightly stronger than generic Coursers.

Your fast units will be able to pillage and attack in the same turn, or chase down faster enemies like Horsemen. Ranged units are able to retreat to rough terrain and attack in the same turn, keeping their damage output high while the damage they receive is kept low. Siege units can move and fire in the same turn ensuring they can much more easily contribute. Faster movement can help you retreat your entire army, but that's usually not necessary. Play aggressively with your levied units - city-states will make more for you to levy later, and lost units can't be levied by a rival civ if they take control of the city-state.

On Continents-style maps (including Small Continents and some Fractal maps) where the world is divided into multiple landmasses, try to conquer every civ on your starting landmass. Not only will that give you a powerful economic base, but it'll also eliminate everyone who has grievances with you - eliminating the penalty to diplomatic favour that comes along with it. That means you'll be able to use your diplomatic advantages despite all that warfare earlier in the game.

On Pangaea-style maps where the whole world has one main landmass, you might want to keep your grievances low by only targeting original capitals and the cities required to provide sufficient loyalty pressure to sustain them under your control.


The early-game strategy of rotating Governor Amani between city-states will only serve you for so long before other civs start accumulating large numbers of envoys from civics and other sources. This means you'll need to use your envoys more tactically in the middle and later eras of the game. Governor Amani with the Puppeteer promotion can usually secure a single city-state under your control (great as a launchpad for attacking civs in new continents from) but once she moves away, other civs will have a much better shot at flipping the city-state. As such, while you can continue to rotate her between cities in peace-time to ensure you can keep levying as many units as possible for envoys, keep her put in war-time so you have a secure source of units.

Furthermore, don't forget to train up Spies and use them to initiate Fabricate Scandal missions in city-states. That'll reduce the envoys other civs have in your city-states, keeping them safely in your control.

Levied units will be the core of your warfare throughout much of the game - especially if you can't secure alliances to boost Huszárs' strength. While they only remain in your control for 30 turns at a time, levying the city-state again once the 30 turns are up will let you use the units again and usually place those units not too far from where they were. You might need to use quite a few turns escorting the units to new continents, so don't neglect technologies which boost embarked movement speed like Square Rigging and Steam Power.

Keep your science output high and connect up strategic resources where possible so you can keep your units upgraded. Even despite Matthias Corvinus' 75% upgrade cost reduction, upgrading your entire levied military can add up to a lot of money before long. Getting the Professional Army military policy card (medieval era, requires the Mercenaries civic) will certainly help.

The 75% discount to strategic resource upgrade costs and the rounding involved in the calculation means Matthias Corvinus doesn't need any oil to upgrade Musketmen into Infantry (or any other upgrade path which involves upgrading into a unit with a resource maintenance cost). While on paper this means you can beeline Replaceable Parts and neglect researching Refining until later, it comes with a substantial penalty. Running a deficit when you have no resources left in the stockpile will give a stacking -1 strength penalty to all units that need the resource. For example, if you have 0 oil left but 10 Infantry and 5 Artillery consuming oil, they'll all receive a -15 strength penalty. Still, if you keep the number of upgraded units low, you'll still gain more strength than you'll lose even without the appropriate strategic resources.


A notable downside of relying on levied units is that you cannot form corps or armies with them. While the combination of Matthias Corvinus' leader ability and the Foreign Ministry building in the Government Plaza district will make your levied units about as strong as corps, armies may be tough opponents later in the game. As such, consider using Huszár or Helicopter corps and armies to help provide support where needed.


Not so interested in warfare? Want to take Hungary down a diplomatic path? That's a perfectly reasonable option. Use Governor Amani with the Puppeteer promotion, and keep rotating her between city-states which you are not already suzerain over so you can levy as many units as possible. That'll secure you a lot of envoys and eventually make you suzerain over a huge number of city-states.


The medieval-era Merchant Confederation diplomatic policy card (requires Medieval Faires) grants you gold for every envoy you have - and can be worth a lot by the end of the game, making it an ideal source of cash for aid emergencies. Completing city-state emergencies as a coalition member will also provide this bonus.

So, if you're playing the diplomatic game, what do you do with your military strengths? Use them in emergencies. Any emergency where warfare is relevant (e.g. city-state, military, nuclear) you should aim to participate in. Huszárs are ideal units for a diplomatic game as their strength bonus depends on alliances.

Don't forget the Országház wonder (industrial era, requires the Sanitation technology) - it doubles the diplomatic favours you'll get from being suzerain over city-states.

• Always levy units when you are able to
  
• Send Governor Amani to a city-state early on along with an envoy and levy the units. Rotate her between other city-states to help you levy as much as possible
  
• In war-time, keep Governor Amani put so she can secure a key city-state under your control.
  
• Keep your technology strong so you can keep your levied army up to date.
  
• Build the Országház wonder if possible to amplify your diplomatic favour advantage.

The Black Army is a powerful spearhead in pre-industrial Hungarian wars, even if trained in small quantities.


Like regular Coursers, the Black Army requires horses to be trained. As such, you'll want to research Animal Husbandry early on to find sources of horses. While you could just beeline Castles at that point, it's generally better to research Writing (for Campuses) first as a bare minimum. You may also want Currency reasonably early for Commercial Hubs, and Iron Working so you can upgrade levied Warriors to Swordsmen. Then again, getting the Black Army trained sooner can be very powerful, so consider carefully which is better for you.

Whichever way you go, unless your gold output is particularly low, start training Horsemen once you have Horseback Riding as you'll be able to upgrade them to Black Army units as soon as you have Castles.


The Black Army has the speed of Coursers and practically the same cost, but a default strength on a par with Knights. And when levied units are adjacent to them, they gain even more power. Thanks to Matthias Corvinus' leader ability, levied units will be fast enough that they'll be able to (mostly) keep up with them, so the bonus isn't too hard to use.


Levied units and the Black Army in formation give the latter an effective strength of 64 - better than generic Cavalry! If possible, put ranged or siege levied units in the back of the formation and melee ones in the front so they can all attack as well. (Note: This screenshot was taken before the April 2021 patch, which increased Black Army base strength from 47 to 49.)

Unlike your levied units, which are fairly expendable, Black Army units should be kept alive as they can be upgraded to Huszárs later. Thankfully, they have access to the Depredation promotion which makes pillaging cheap - pillaging a farm or two is a great way to recover health when needed.


The Black Army is the only UU in the game that upgrades into another: the Huszár. Huszárs are stronger than fully-boosted Black Army units, so the only reason to hold off from upgrading to them is the increased cost of training them, and the cost of upgrading existing Black Army units to them. But seeing as most of your army will consist of levied units giving your cities spare production to use, that generally won't be a problem.

Two eras of relevance not enough for Black Army units? Upgrade them to Huszárs and you can keep them effective for even longer! You'll also get to keep all those nice promotions you earned along the way. Huszárs are largely used in combat the same way as Black Army units were, with the main difference being that you no longer need to position levied units around them for the best bonuses, meaning it's more practical to use them in larger numbers.

Huszárs are most effective if you have alliances - the more, the better. Extensive warfare in the earlier eras of the game might make that impossible. If that's the case, you might want to put off researching Military Science until you have technologies like Gunpowder and Metal Casting, allowing you to upgrade the rest of your army. Black Army units with 5 adjacent levied units (the maximum possible still allowing them to attack) are only three points weaker than unboosted Huszárs, while Musketmen are a full 19 points stronger than Swordsmen and Bombards are 20 points stronger than Catapults - upgrading the latter first may make a much bigger difference to your overall army.

On the other hand, if you manage to avoid gaining too many grievances and are able to secure a few alliances, beelining Military Science can be extremely effective. Some possible ways to keep your grievances low include:

• Simply playing diplomatically early on and avoiding warfare outside of emergencies and liberating city-states
  
• Keeping your early-game warfare limited, such as by only taking original capitals and the cities necessary to provide loyalty pressure to keep them in your control.
  
• Liberating cities as you conquer to offset the grievances you generate.
  
• Conquering your entire home continent before meeting any civ from a different continent, so you lack grievances with surviving civs.

You can have up to 5 alliances at once, which will mean up to a +15 strength bonus for Huszárs. Combined with how relatively easy Military Science is to beeline, you could end up with an enormous strength advantage over your foes. That being said, if you're playing the domination game, you'll eventually have to give up that strength advantage once you start going to war with your former allies. Consider targeting whichever civ is your main competition for city-state envoys first, as levied city-state units will continue to be form the core of your army.

But even without any alliances, Huszárs are still fine units for their time - they're stronger than other land-based pre-modern units, and don't require resource maintenance unlike modern-era and later units. That can free up resources for levied units while still ensuring you have a few reliable units for times when levied units expire - at least until Huszárs obsolete at Synthetic Materials.

Constant warfare causing you trouble with war weariness? The Thermal Bath building will provide you with plenty of amenities, allowing your warfare to continue without too much trouble! It even provides some production to help with your empire's general development.


Thermal Baths arrive at the industrial-era Natural History civic. While at the opposite side of the civic tree to Nationalism (required to make corps), beelining Natural History shouldn't be a problem as you can't form corps or armies with levied units (which will be the bulk of your army) anyway.

Any city with at least one geothermal fissure within its city limits should build an Entertainment Complex and an Arena ahead of time, if possible. If a city has more than one geothermal fissure within its limits, see if you can get an adjacent city to take control of one of its geothermal fissure tiles so it can also get the full bonus from a Thermal Bath. Finally, if there's any remaining cities more than 6 tiles away from an Entertainment Complex, consider building new Entertainment Complexes so that your entire empire can be within range of Thermal Baths.

Because Thermal Baths lack the science boost to rainforest that Zoos offer, you can go ahead and chop down rainforests to speed up production. If you need lumber mills, Conservation is only one civic away from Natural History and allows you to plant woods, so there'll be little trouble from cutting rainforests down.

If a city lacks access to a geothermal fissure, and isn't already in range of a Thermal Bath, they'll gain no benefit from building a new one. As such, you don't need Entertainment Complexes in all your cities unless you're desperately short of amenities.


Thermal Baths provide 2 amenities rather than the usual 1 to cities within a six-tile radius, allowing you to support an extra couple of population points in each city, or offset a fair bit more war weariness. Cities within six tiles which aren't already in range of a Thermal Bath will also gain 2 points of production - not loads by this point in the game, but rather helpful for newly-founded or newly-captured cities.

But in cities with a geothermal fissure and a Thermal Bath, they'll gain a total of 4 amenities - as much as you gain from a luxury resource - and even before taking into account other cities within the building's radius! They'll also produce 3 tourism, but that's a fairly minor quantity which shouldn't make a huge difference in most games.

Ultimately, Thermal Baths are primarily useful as a powerful source of amenities to support your aims in warfare.

Note that the Administration sections strictly cover the options that have particularly good synergy with the civ's uniques. These are not necessarily the best choices, but rather options you should consider more than usual if playing this civ relative to others.



Oligarchy is your best option as a large proportion of the city-state units you levy, especially early on, will be eligible for its strength bonus.

Complement Oligarchy with the Warlord's Throne for production from your conquests. For a diplomatic game, Ancestral Hall might be better to speed up early expansion, allowing you to grab more riverside city spots sooner.


Monarchy offers a 50% boost to influence points, which will help you gain envoys with city-states faster.

The Foreign Ministry is the obvious choice of Government Plaza building as it makes levying city-state units 50% cheaper, and makes those units 4 points stronger. Combined with Matthias Corvinus' leader ability, all your levied units now have a +9 strength boost - almost as good as the bonus for forming corps!


Take Fascism for a domination game and your already-strong units will be even more powerful. For a diplomatic game, Democracy helps you get more out of any alliances you may have.

The War Department will work well for a domination game, while the Royal Society's ability to help you rush city projects is more appropriate for a diplomatic game.


Synthetic Technocracy's bonus to city projects is good for a diplomatic game, while its power boost is great for city development in general - complementing Hungary's civ ability neatly.



Manoeuvre (Military, requires Military Tradition) - Helps you train Horsemen faster, which can then be upgraded to Black Army units.

Urban Planning (Economic, requires Code of Laws) - Great in conjunction with Hungary's civ ability for getting new cities building what they need sooner.


Charismatic Leader (Diplomatic, requires Political Philosophy) - Helps you gain envoys faster, meaning you can be suzerain over more city-states and levy larger armies.

Diplomatic League (Diplomatic, requires Political Philosophy) - Great for getting bonus envoys in new city-states.

Equestrian Orders (Military, requires Military Training) - If you're short on horses for your unique units, or iron for upgraded levied units, this will be helpful for increasing the stocks of resources you already have.

Raid (Military, requires Military Training) - Both Hungary's UUs are light cavalry, meaning with the Caparison promotion they can pillage for just one movement point. Furthermore, Matthias Corvinus' leader ability increases the movement speed of levied units to a point where they can all pillage and move in the same turn. This policy card builds on these advantages by increasing your pillage yields.


Chivalry (Military, requires Divine Right) - Allows you to train Black Army units and Huszárs faster.

Merchant Confederation (Diplomatic, requires Medieval Faires) - This can be an immense source of cash - particularly on larger maps later in the game.

Professional Army (Military, requires Mercenaries) - Even though upgrading levied units is cheap for Hungary, the costs can really add up without this policy card. This policy card will also help you upgrade your Black Army units to Huszárs.


Logistics (Military, requires Mercantilism) - Helps build on your movement speed advantage, making it easier to go from a captured city to surrounding an enemy city in a single turn.

Machiavellianism (Diplomatic, requires Diplomatic Service) - Spies can take envoys off other civs via the Fabricate Scandal mission in a city-state, so you'll want to have a few around to stop your levied units suddenly becoming un-levied.

Wisselbanken (Diplomatic, requires Diplomatic Service) - Helps you gain alliance points faster, so you're getting alliances to boost Huszárs, you'll get better rewards along the way.


Force Modernisation (Military, requires Urbanisation) - Halves the cost of upgrading units, making it really affordable to keep all those levied units up to date.

National Identity (Military, requires Nationalism) - Levied units can be used recklessly as city-states will create more and levying is relatively cheap. That means they'll be at full health less often, allowing you to get more out of this policy card's strength boost.

Raj (Diplomatic, requires Colonialism) - All your city-states you're suzerain over will now provide a variety of bonus yields.

Total War (Military, requires Scorched Earth) - Doubles pillaging yields, including trade routes, allowing you to use your light cavalry and fast levied units more effectively.


Gunboat Diplomacy (Diplomatic, requires Ideology) - An excellent boost to influence points, allowing you to get more envoys.

Lightning Warfare (Military, requires Ideology) - Boosts the production of all light cavalry units, including your unique units.

Resource Management (Military, requires Conservation) - Both aluminium and oil are consumed in large quantities later in the game as you upgrade all your levied units. As such, this policy card may be essential for supporting that cost.

Third Alternative (Military, Fascism only, requires Totalitarianism) - Bonuses to Research Labs and Power Plants goes well with Hungary's civ ability as you'll be able to build them faster in certain cities.


Containment (Diplomatic, requires Cold War) - A powerful source of envoys in city-states you're not already suzerain over.

Cryptography (Diplomatic, requires Cold War) - Boosts your Spies' effectiveness at Fabricate Scandal missions, helping you remove more envoys off rival civs and secure your city-states.


Collective Activism (Diplomatic, requires Social Media) - Being suzerain over a lot of city-states will really help your culture output - great for defending against cultural civs' tourism or for getting through those last few civics.

International Space Agency (Diplomatic, requires Globalisation) - Being suzerain over a lot of city-states will really help your science output, too!

Free Inquiry (Golden Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - Commercial Hubs adjacent to a river are cheap for Hungary to build and will have good adjacency bonuses. With this bonus, it's a great source of science!

Monasticism (Dark Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - Hungary can potentially get Holy Sites and Campuses up quickly enough to get a great science boost out of this Dark Age policy.

Monumentality (Dedication, Classical to Renaissance eras) - Turn your strong production bonus via the unique ability into a great source of era score! Free Inquiry or Pen, Brush and Voice might be better in certain situations, but Hungary doesn't have as distinct an advantage there.

Pen, Brush and Voice (Golden Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - Faster district construction via Hungary's civ ability could be a good source of culture via this dedication. Free Inquiry is typically better, but this could be good as a complement in medieval-era Heroic Ages.

Twilight Valour (Dark Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - As levied units are relatively disposable, you don't need to worry about keeping them healed up so much. As such, this Dark Age policy can be a good attack boost without too much of a downside. That being said, be careful with your non-levied units!

Elite Forces (Dark Age, Industrial to Information eras) - Levied units don't have maintenance costs, so you can get all the benefit with relatively little downside from this Dark Age policy card.

Heartbeat of Steam (Dedication, Industrial to Atomic eras) - Gives you era score for building your UB, as well as other buildings from later in the game. Hungary's civ ability can help you construct them sooner.

Robber Barons (Dark Age, Industrial to Information eras) - Hungary's civ ability makes it easier to build Factories and Stock Exchanges, while Hungary's UB provides enough amenities to cover the downside.

To Arms! (Golden Age, Industrial to Information eras) - War with a huge cut to grievances, which is perfect if you're at war but trying to preserve alliances, or are attempting a hybrid warmonger/diplomat route.

Disinformation Campaign (Dark Age, Information to Future eras) - You can use Hungary's civ ability to build Broadcast Centres faster, and benefit from the huge boost to diplomatic favour.


How you should vote in the World Congress will often be specific to your game - if you have a strong rival, for example, it might be better to vote to hurt them than to help yourself. Furthermore, there may be general bonuses to your chosen victory route or gameplay which are more relevant than ones that have stronger synergy with civ-specific bonuses. Otherwise, here's a list of key relevant votes that have high relevance for this civ relative to other civs.

City-State Emergency - Always vote in favour

Success gives you +1 gold for every envoy you have, which is quite a considerable boost to income. Liberating a city-state also automatically makes you suzerain - you can then immediately levy the units for even more envoys.

Deforestation Treaty - Effect A (Clearing features of the chosen type yields gold equal to the production and/or food) on rainforest

As Thermal Baths don't gain science from rainforests (unlike generic Zoos), a key incentive to keep them is removed.

Governance Doctrine - Effect A (Appointing and promoting the specified Governor type yields 15 diplomatic favor) on Governor Amani (The Diplomat)

Diplomatic favour is useful for you anyway, so any Governor you intend to promote will do, but Amani is particularly relevant due to Hungary's focus on city-states.

Mercenary Companies - Effect A (Producing, or purchasing military units using the chosen currency type costs 100% more until the next World Congress) on production or any other yield you think other civs are likely to use.

Because levied units are a key component of your army, making military units more expensive to produce won't affect you as much as it'll affect your enemies.

Military Advisory - Effect A (Units of the chosen promotion class gain +5 Combat Strength) on light cavalry

Boosts your UUs, but is a niche enough bonus it generally won't give your opponents too much of an advantage.

Public Relations - Effect B (The chosen civ generates 50% fewer grievances, and other civs generate 50% fewer grievances toward this civ) on yourself

Allows you to engage with warfare without destroying your diplomatic potential.

Treaty Organisation - Effect A (Double diplomatic favor earned from being suzerain of a city-state of this type) on whichever city-state type you are suzerain over the most

Boosts your diplomatic favour generation even further.

Urban Development Treaty - Effect A (+100% production towards buildings in this district) on whichever district you're aiming to develop the most.

Builds on Hungary's civ ability.

City Patron Goddess - Can help your new riverside cities develop particularly fast.

Divine Spark - Hungary's civ ability can help with Great Person Points generation even further with this pantheon.

Initiation Rites - Levying city-state units early on gives you a great force for dealing with Barbarians. You can get a decent amount of faith out of that via this pantheon - the faith will be largely useful for Great Person patronage.

River Goddess - Any Holy Site you build with help from Hungary's civ ability will now provide +2 housing and +2 amenities. All those amenities will really help with war weariness.


You can have one founder, one follower, one enhancer and one worship belief.

Crusade (Enhancer) - If you want to use Hungary's civ ability to help you found an early religion, this is an excellent belief to go for. Spread your religion to civs, then follow up with an invasion of city-states for massive damage.

Defender of the Faith (Enhancer) - Relying on levied city-state units can leave you vulnerable at home seeing as the journey from a city-state to an enemy will often not involve crossing your core territory. That can leave your key cities vulnerable. As such, this belief might be helpful to buy time before your levied units can return to defend your core territory.

Stewardship (Founder) - Fast district construction can help get more out of this belief.

Religious Unity (Founder) - Converting city-states will provide a bonus envoy - particularly powerful early in the game where one envoy often means the difference between being suzerain and not.


Though obviously you should seek to be suzerain over as many city-states as possible, the following have particularly relevant suzerain bonuses:

Akkad (Militaristic) - Particularly useful early on before city-states start producing siege units. This lets you use your levied melee infantry and anti-cavalry units against cities as if you had a Siege Tower with them - even beyond the time Siege Towers obsolete.

Ayutthaya (Cultural) - The Hungarian civ ability can considerably speed up building construction, making this suzerain bonus an effective source of culture.

Bologna (Scientific) - Get even more Great People out of your quickly-constructed districts.

Hattusa (Scientific) - Can be really useful for upgrading levied units when you lack access to certain strategic resources.

Mexico City (Industrial) - Allows fewer Thermal Baths to be built for all your cities to get the +2 amenities and +2 production effect.

Wolin (Militaristic) - Hungary's civ ability can't speed up the construction of Encampments nor their buildings, so it's helpful to have an alternative source of Great General Points.

Oracle (Ancient era, Mysticism civic) - In a fast-growing riverside city, this wonder could provide quite a lot of Great Person Points from all those quickly-constructed riverside districts.

Apadana (Classical era, Political Philosophy civic) - A potentially powerful source of envoys helping you secure suzerain status over more city-states.

Terracotta Army (Classical era, Construction technology) - Levied city-state unit armies tend to rely on quantity rather than quality - but this means the Terracotta Army will be all the more powerful, as a lot of units will get a free promotion.

Kilwa Kisiwani (Medieval era, Machinery technology) - Once you're suzerain over a lot of city-states, the potential bonuses on offer here can be huge. Even if you're not, getting three envoys will still be helpful.

Országház (Industrial era, Sanitation technology) - It's rather appropriate that the one Hungarian wonder in the game is ideal for Hungary to build. It doubles the diplomatic favour you get from city-states. For a domination game, this means even with lots of grievances you can still push around the World Congress. For a diplomatic game, this is a must-have wonder on the road to victory. Obviously, wonders that directly give diplomatic victory points are great as well and you should aim to build them, but they lack the same kind of synergy Országház has, so they aren't listed here.


Great Generals and Admirals are only mentioned if their retirement bonuses have specific synergy with the civ; not merely for providing a strength bonus to a unique unit.


Hypatia (Great Scientist) - Being able to build certain Campuses and Libraries faster makes it easier to make the most of this Great Person's bonus.


El Cid (Great General) - Make sure you have a spare classical or medieval-era Great General before using his retirement bonus. That aside, using him on a Black Army unit gives it effectively 73 strength if adjacent to five levied units - enough to reliably kill a Swordsman or Crossbowman in one hit, and often kill a generic Courser in one hit!

Piero de' Bardi (Great Merchant) - Grants an envoy.


Ana Nzinga (Great General) - Grants an envoy.

Ibn Khaldun (Great Scientist) - Thermal Baths can be an effective source of amenities, helping you secure the associated yield bonuses. Ibn Khaldun's retirement bonus builds upon that further.

Isaac Newton (Great Scientist) - Makes Universities stronger, which you can build faster with help from Hungary's civ ability.

Jakob Fugger (Great Merchant) - Grants two envoys.

Leonardo da Vinci (Great Engineer) - Adds culture to Workshops; Hungary's civ ability helps you build them faster.

Zhou Daguan (Great Merchant) - Three envoys at a specific city-state.


James Watt (Great Engineer) - Makes Factories stronger; Hungary's civ ability helps you build them faster.

James Young (Great Scientist) - Upgrading levied units to Infantry and Artillery will cost a lot of oil maintenance, so it helps to know where oil spots are ahead of time.

Joesph Paxton (Great Engineer) - Makes a single Thermal Bath effective over a larger radius.

John Jacob Astor (Great Merchant) - Grants two envoys.


Albert Einstein (Great Scientist) - Boosts the effectiveness of Research Labs; Hungary's civ ability can help you build them faster.

John Rockefeller (Great Merchant) - A lot of levied units means a lot of oil needed. This Great Merchant shall help with that.

Matthew Perry (Great Admiral) - Forces a city-state into your suzerainity, no matter how many envoys other civs have present. Be sure to immediately levy the city's units to make it hard to lose that status.

Nikola Tesla (Great Engineer) - Makes an Industrial Zone stronger; Hungary's civ ability will help you develop it faster.


Georgy Zhukov (Great General) - With high quantities of units at your disposal and high mobility, good flanking bonuses are inevitable. Retiring this Great General will make them even better.

Hungary can yield a terrifying force of powerful fast units - but use envoys and Governor Amani (the Diplomat) wisely and that could all rapidly disappear.


The fewer riverside spots Hungary gets, the weaker this ability is. Pushing Hungary towards lakes (or even riverside spots that have few tiles opposite the city centre) will do a lot to weaken their early development. But if that isn't an option, you can also try pillaging Hungary later. Their districts should be concentrated in riverside locations - with promoted light cavalry, you could quickly yield a lot from pillaging those spots.

If Hungary is settling on floodplain, they'll end up with a lot of districts prone to flooding. If they build a Dam to attempt to mitigate this, you can use Spies with the Breach Dam mission to pillage the Dam and destroy districts downstream from it.


If Matthias Corvinus cannot become suzerain over a city-state, his ability becomes useless (and by extension, the Black Army UU becomes a lot weaker). Rushing city-states for invasion might be a good idea if you fear an early rush by Hungary - even if that means facing down a city-state emergency.

Alternatively, there's a few peaceful options of stopping Hungary's armies. You can try giving Governor Amani the Puppeteer promotion so you can easily flip city-states out of Hungary's control (assuming you're not already at war with Hungary). Even if it's only for a few turns, Hungary will have to take a few more turns to get their levied units back where they want them to be. Another option is to use Spies with the Fabricate Scandal mission to remove Hungarian envoys from city-states.

Hungary is perhaps at their most dangerous around the medieval and renaissance eras, when the Black Army UU is at full power and the Foreign Ministry building enters play. But once you enter the industrial era, you have access to corps (at the Nationalism civic). Levied units can't form corps, allowing you to have units strong enough to stand up to Hungary's levied forces at an equal basis. Once you reach the modern-era Mobilisation civic, you can form armies for a strength advantage over Hungary's levied troops.


Countering the Black Army can be done simply by preventing Hungary from becoming suzerain over any city-states - at that point, it's not much better than a regular Courser and can be easily countered using Pikemen.

But if Hungary manages to levy troops, then it might be a good idea to pick off the levied units surrounding the Black Army UU before targeting it specifically (assuming you can't overturn Hungary's suzerain status over the levied units). That way, you'll maximise your damage output.


Matthias Corvinus, if controlled by a computer, will like to levy troops from city-states more than other leaders. He likes civs who levy from city-states, and dislikes those who don't.

This is a nasty agenda to meet because attempting to meet it can end up giving Matthias Corvinus a direct advantage. If you levy from a city-state, and he overturns your suzerain status, he'll gain era score. As such, unless you're playing a civ that's particularly good at gaining envoys, you might have trouble becoming friends with him.


The great thing about the Huszár UU is that its power is largely in inverse proportion to how aggressive Matthias Corvinus has been. The more of a threat he's been throughout the game, the harder it'll be for him to find alliances and therefore the less of a threat this unit will be. If Hungary has no alliances, you can counter Huszárs reasonably well with promoted Pike and Shot units, and effectively with AT Crews. But if Hungary's inclined towards making alliances, you might be able to make one yourself.

Of course, if Hungary has a lot of alliances and has turned against you, then you've got a tough fight on your hands. Forming Pike and Shot corps or AT Crew corps will help.


The Thermal Bath arrives relatively late as UBs go, and its impact isn't game-changing. It's effective in cities with access to geothermal fissures, but that's a relatively rare terrain feature. As such, the best thing to remember is that Hungary, starting in the industrial era, will have more amenities and hence more capacity to fight in prolonged wars.

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• Civ summaries (Start here for an introduction for all civs)
  
• Civ-specific tricks, secrets and clarifications (Ideal for more experienced players)

• America - no additional content* (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• America - all additional content* (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Arabia (Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Australia (Domination/Scientific)
  
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• Gran Colombia (Domination)
  
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• Hungary (Diplomatic/Domination)
  
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• Maya (Scientific)
  
• Mongolia (Domination)
  
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• Scythia (Domination/Religious)
  
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• Sumeria (Diplomatic/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Sweden (Cultural/Diplomatic)
  
• Vietnam (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Zulus (Domination)

*The Teddy Roosevelt Persona Pack splits Roosevelt's leader ability in two, meaning the game with it is substantially different from without - hence two different versions of the America guide. Lincoln was added later and is only covered in the latter guide.

Other civs with alternative leader personas are not split because the extra personas added in later content do not change the existing gameplay - as such the guides are perfectly usable by players without them.

These guides are for those with the Rise and Fall expansion, but not Gathering Storm. They are no longer updated and have not been kept up to date with patches released since Gathering Storm. To look at them, click here to open the Rise and Fall Civ Summaries guide. The "Other Guides" section of every Rise and Fall guide has links to every other Rise and Fall guide.


The Vanilla guides are for those without the Rise and Fall or Gathering Storm expansions. These guides are no longer updated and have not been kept up to date with patches released since Rise and Fall. To look at them, click here to open the Vanilla Civ Summaries guide. The "Other Guides" section of every Vanilla guide has links to every other Vanilla guide.