Hattusa

Strategy guide

Two copies per turn of every strategic resource you have revealed but not improved — niter you never mined, oil you never drilled. Reveal techs early and you can field musketmen, tanks or jets without owning a single source. Also the cleanest fix for the aluminum crunch of the space race.

Best civs & plans

Insurance for any military plan on a resource-poor map, and quietly excellent for science civs that need aluminum for late-game projects.

Envoy plan

One envoy into Hattusa is worth sending the moment you meet it: as a scientific city-state it adds science to the capital and every Library, which pays for itself in the ancient era. The suzerain bonus is the real prize, though, and three envoys should be in place before Bronze Working and Military Engineering start revealing resources you cannot reach. AI science leaders contest scientific city-states aggressively, so expect to need four or five envoys rather than three to hold the lead. The six-envoy tier is a bonus for Research Labs much later and should not drive your decision. Redirect the envoy from the Mysticism civic here if strategic resources are scarce around your capital.

Value by era

Hattusa's value is uneven across eras because it depends on how many strategic resources you have revealed but not improved. In the ancient era that usually means horses and iron only, and a modest stockpile of each is enough for a swordsman or two. The bonus surges in the renaissance and industrial eras: niter appears with Military Engineering, coal with Industrialization, and these are the resources most maps deny to at least one civ. It peaks in the modern and atomic eras, when oil, aluminum and uranium gate tanks, jets and the space race, and a steady trickle of each removes the need to trade for them at ruinous prices. The bonus only weakens if you improve every source yourself, which is the opposite of the usual situation.

Pitfalls and how to protect it

The bonus is easy to misread. It counts resource types you have revealed and do not currently improve, so mining the one iron deposit in your territory actually removes that resource from the trickle; sometimes leaving a source unimproved is correct when the mine would add little production. Another trap is assuming it substitutes for actual reveals: you still need the tech that shows the resource on the map. Hattusa is worth defending with a Protectorate War because a captured Hattusa stops supplying resources to anyone. Levying its units is a reasonable emergency measure. If the suzerainty flips mid-war, your per-turn income stops immediately, so keep a stockpile buffer before committing to a resource-heavy campaign.

Envoy bonuses

• 1 envoy+1 Science in your capital and in each Library you own.
• 3 envoys+2 Science in each University and each Consulate you own.
• 6 envoys+3 Science in each Research Lab and each Chancery you own.

Envoy bonuses are shared by every city-state of the same type.

Other Scientific city-states

• Anshan
• Bologna
• Fez
• Geneva
• Nalanda
• Mitla
• Taruga

Related guides

• City-States and Envoys: Where Your Influence Should GoWhere envoys come from, how to spend the first handful, which city-state types match each victory plan, how to win and keep suzerainty against the AI, and when conquering a city-state is the right call.Last reviewed: 2026-10-03
• Diplomatic Victory: Earning and Spending FavorA working plan for the Gathering Storm diplomatic victory: where Diplomatic Favor actually comes from, how World Congress sessions and votes turn into victory points, which emergencies, competitions and wonders matter, how to keep alliances alive, and when to spend favor versus hold it against a rival's lead.Last reviewed: 2026-10-03
• Early District Planning: The First 100 TurnsHow to read city sites for future adjacency, decide between settling for yields now or reserving tile clusters, and know when a planned layout should be abandoned.Last reviewed: 2026-10-03