Hungary
Matthias Corvinus
Uniques and adjacency effects read from the game data.
Victory focusDominationDiplomacy
Kit at a glance
Matthias raises armies he never built: levied city-state troops get upgraded at a steep discount, gain his bonuses, and fight as his own. Hungary conquers through proxies — your allies' soldiers, your victories.
Opening: the first 60 turns
Hungary settles on rivers and builds on the far bank. Open Scout, Warrior, Settler, Settler and put the capital directly on a river with a hill or two across the water, because every district and building placed across the river from the center gets Hungary's production discount. Techs run Mining and Pottery, then Bronze Working and Currency, with the first district a Commercial Hub on the opposite bank for both the discount and the gold that later funds levies. Civics go Foreign Trade, then Political Philosophy. The scouts should find every city-state on the continent, since a levy-ready city-state next to a rival is the leader's entire mid-game plan, and envoys should be banked rather than spent.
Unique to this civilization
Unit
Huszár
Replaces Cavalry
Technology: Military Science
Building
Thermal Bath
Replaces Zoo
Civic: Natural History
Adjacency effects
No adjacency bonus — standard district rules apply.
How to play it
Bank gold and envoys, then levy a city-state army next to your target and upgrade it on the spot — an instant modern force for the price of influence. Build across the river from your city centers for Hungary's thermal-bath and district bonuses.
Victory paths
Domination through proxies is the signature path. A city-state next to the target is levied for gold, the borrowed army is upgraded at a steep discount on the spot, gains movement and strength under Matthias, and the levy itself returns envoys that push you toward suzerainty of the same minor; the war is fought and won before your own production has built a single unit. Huszár at Military Science add strength per active alliance, so alliances are military assets rather than just trade partners. That alliance web is why diplomacy is the second path: a Hungary with three or four alliances and suzerainty over half the city-states has the favor income for a Diplomatic Victory, and the Thermal Bath's amenity makes wide empires easy to keep content. Science through captured cities is only a consolation.
Synergies: city-states, wonders, policies
Militaristic city-states are the levy targets that matter, and unlike most leaders Matthias wants them adjacent to enemies, not to himself. Amani parked in the levy city-state counts as two envoys toward the suzerainty you need there; Victor then holds the captured city. Commercial policy is the real military policy here — Caravansaries, Triangular Trade and later Free Market pay for levies — with Diplomatic League and Gunboat Diplomacy for the envoy side. Any pantheon that helps a river empire fits: Lady of the Reeds and Marshes on floodplains, otherwise God of the Open Sky. Kilwa Kisiwani and Apadana are the wonders that grow the city-state web, while Big Ben supplies the gold reserve a large levy needs. A geothermal fissure across the river from a city center is worth settling for, as the Thermal Bath rewards it.
Weaknesses and counters
No city-states means no army. A map where the minors are conquered early, or sit on the wrong side of a mountain range, leaves Hungary as a modest river-builder civ with a cavalry unit that needs alliances it has not made. Levied units return to their owner when the timer ends, so a war that drags past the levy window collapses. Opponents counter him by out-envoying or conquering the city-states adjacent to their own borders, by declaring war on Hungary while his levy is far from home, and by avoiding alliances with him that would power Huszár. The characteristic mistake is levying too early, before the discounted upgrade can turn ancient units into knights, wasting the gold on an army no better than your own.
Similar civilizations
Related guides
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- 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
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