A Guide to Playing as the Matthias Civ 6 Hungarian Leader in Civilization 6

Matthias Corvinus was a Hungarian king from the 15th century who established one of the first professional armies and embraced Italian Renaissance-style art and architecture. He’s one of the leaders you can play as in the Civilization 6 Gathering Storm expansion. The Matthias Corvinus Civ 6 Hungarian leader offers some notable military and productivity advantages for players in Civilization 6.

The Raven King Leader Bonus

Raven King is the leader bonus for Matthias Corvinus that enables you to upgrade levied units from city-states with a 75% discount. It also gives your levied city-state units +2 movement and +5 combat strength bonuses. Plus, levying troops from a city-state gives you two more envoys for it.

Hungary’s Pearl of the Danube Civ Ability

The unique Pearl of the Danube ability for the Civ 6 Hungarian leader applies a 50% production bonus for districts and buildings built on the opposite side of a river from your city center. Thus, it enables you to build districts and their buildings faster when placed on tiles across a river adjacent to a city center. Make sure you place districts on tiles along rivers directly opposite your city centers to activate this ability.

Hungary’s Unique Infrastructure and Units

Hungary is a civilization with two unique units. The Black Army is a unique unit unlocked with the Castles tech that has a 49 melee attack rating and +5 movement. Black Army also gains a +3 combat strength bonus when placed alongside a levied unit.

Hungary’s unique Huszár unit replaces Cavalry when unlocked with the Military Science tech. That unit has a melee attack rating of 65 and +5 movement. It receives a +3 combat strength bonus for each active alliance that you establish.

The Thermal Bath is Hungary’s unique entertainment building that replaces the Arena. That building generates a +2 production yield for cities within six tiles. It also generates +2 amenities like the Arena it replaces.

Tips for Winning as the Matthias Corvinus Civ 6 Hungarian Leader

The Matthias Corvinus Civ 6 Hungarian leader is best suited for games of military conquest. His Raven King leader bonus enables you to levy stronger units from city-states and upgrade them with a signicant 75% reduction in cost. Plus, the two unique units available for Hungary, rather than the standard one, are another advantage for players seeking a Domination Victory.

Whatever victory condition you’re playing for with the Matthias Corvinus Civ 6 Hungarian leader, rivers are important for exploiting the Pearl of the Danube civ ability. Try to establish your cities alongside rivers whenever possible. Try to settle your cities along bends in rivers so they’ll have more adjacent tiles across the rivers for you to place districts for faster construction.

If playing for the Domination Victory condition, you must try to exploit the Raven King leader bonus. To do that, you’ll need lots of gold and a strong economy for levying more city-states. Focus on building more Commercial Hubs and Harbor districts, along with their buildings, to give your economy a boost. To further boost gold generated from your Commercial Hubs, select the Free Market and Market Union economy cards.

I also recommend selecting the Retinues and Levée en Masse policy cards to cut your military costs when waging war with the Civ 6 Hungarian leader. Levée en Masse applies a -2 reduction for unit maintenance cost every turn when selected as policy. Selecting Ritinues enables you to upgrade all units with a 50% reduction in cost. When combined with the Raven King leader bonus, selecting Ritinues will reduce the upgrade costs for levied units to negligible amounts.

Getting more envoys for establishing suzerains in city-states must also be a part of your strategy when playing as the Matthias Corvinus Civ 6 Hungarian leader. To earn more envoys, select the Charismatic Leader and Gunboat Diplomacy cards that increase influence points. You can also amass more gold from your envoys by selecting the Merchant Confederation card.

Matthias Corvinus is especially strong at waging war from the Medieval to the Industrial Era with his unique cavalry units. Make sure you have a good supply of horse resources so that you can roll out the Black Army and Huszár units. Then, you crush your enemies with those unique units, combined with those levied from city-states, before the Modern Era kicks in.

Science is a reasonable alternative victory condition to play for with the Civ 6 Hungarian leader. If you go for a scientific victory, place Campus Districts across rivers so that you can build their buildings quicker with the Pearl of Danube civ ability. Then, give your cities small production boosts for space race projects by building Thermal Baths in Entertainment districts. The additional amenities from Thermal Baths can also increase science and production yields in your cities.

So, you can have a lot of fun going on the rampage with the Matthias Corvinus Civ 6 Hungarian leader in Civilization 6. Hungary is a civilization primarily designed for conquest, with a leader bonus that will enable you to levy stronger armies from city-states, upgrade them much more cheaply, and recruit an additional unique unit for wars. The productivity advantages that his Pearl of the Danube civ ability and Thermal Bath infrastructure provide will also help you build districts and buildings faster for variable victory conditions.