Strategy for Hungary

[guczy]

I'm a "returning" player, havent played for years, and when i reinstalled M2TW i remembered how i loved SS for it, so thats what im using again. I've started off with my home nation, Hungary, but wow, either i'm out of shape or the game gotten harder. I've been looking in the assorted guides but didnt find one for Hungary so if someone could give me a few tips i would really appreciate it. My main problem is Rome (i mean Byzantium). They declare war quite quickly and have FAR FAR superior units than me. The biggest threat are their heavy cavalry as my horse archers dont do nearly enough damage to them and i lack any spear units that can kill em efficiently. I could just go with another faction, but i dont wanna give up :-) Thx in advance for any help!

[Neptune7]

I have never played Hungary. That's like the only faction I haven't tried yet..thanks for reminding me, I will give it a shot. I could also use some strategy from Hungarian experts..

[DeMolay]

Im not an expert on Hungary , but i played one campaign with them not too long ago and in SS6.3 , Byzantine Empire is indeed a pain in the neck for Hungary in the early period (especially since the way i play this game is to conqueer the historical kingdom of Hungary and defend it , so i never have many settlements compared to the huge Byzantium Empire ) .

However in the high period , you get the Pavise Spearmen who are good enough against any cavalry the Byz have , you get the Feudal knights and Banderium knights too (mounted and dismounted )

so in the high period i wouldn't say Hungary 's roster is inferior ( Croats axemen to tackle Byz armoured infantry , feudal knights to tacle anything except their most efficient spearmen , you have pavise spearmen who perform well against any cavalry , you got Bulgarian Brigands as mercenaries for missiles , as well as Magyar cavalry to cripple with arrows their spearmen or unarmoured infantry , you get elite heavy infantry from castle too )

My advice would be to do what i did , in the early period , try to avoid fighting them in the field , try to defend more (in sieges , their cavalry is useless , or in mountains where you troops are defending on top ) and update your tech (armourers , ballista towers etc ) , then when you get the pavise spearmen and good number of heavy cavalry in the high period , you can start fighting the Byzantines more in open fields on equal footing in my opinion .

Also of course , the key thing with Hungary is alliances at the beggining , because when you start in early period , Hungary is weak economically compared the Byzantine Empire and surrounded by powerful factions . Byzantine will get weaker and weaker and Hungary will get stronger and stronger , i didn't finish my campaign , but i'm pretty sure Hungary is stronger in the late period

[Gogolometro]

Is a little super power having wallachian and bulgarian lands on their hands, never in real history, but this is a game. Plus they ally from start with polish boys.
Was fun to see Hungary in 1450 from super power to dust, thanks to turks uber units.

[Xerovlade]

Horse archers as your standing army. Just hit, shoot, run away, and repeat. However, it's useless against a siege.
I suggest building up an economy for finance first. It's never fun to play the peasant king.
Conquer a border nation and give it to the papacy (or whoever is strong and friendly) as a buffer nation/state.
For defense use rivers, bridges, passes, etc. and hold them with spears and arrows.

If your playing 2TPY, just take your time and give Rome some tribute. Just bide your time till Rome takes that first step down the hill, then shove with all your might. Just make sure you don't fall down with it. Oh and watch out for those Venetians heading east. As well as the HRE.

[Ichon]

Hungary is in an interesting position and has a fun roster. Can border Black, Med, and Baltic seas with a few conquests. Byzantines are surely their strongest foes in the early campaign but often it takes some time for the Byzantines to get rolling and Venice, Ottomans, Kievan Rus, and Fatimids can distract them if you wait patiently or not... the Byzantine roster early on is tough for the starting Hungary roster but eventually the Hungarian units become quite strong and capable of defeating Byzantines in field battles reliably. Sieges are tougher than normal for Hungary in the beginning but siege&sally works well.

Hungary going west to Italy or south to Greece can bring in loads of money but personally I had a quite fun campaign going east and NE against Kievan Rus and Poland/HRE, eventually Teutons and Mongols...

[Fakir]

Are you seriously asking this? Blitz Poland! If history has taught us anything...

OK Seriously though, blitz Poland. Krakow doesn't have stone walls at the start, which makes it an easy target. Once that is taken, Poland is finished. FINISHED. Then you can move up and grab Thorn and get ready to spy-attack the HRE so you can snatch Vienna, Prague, and Wroclaw when they're undefended. If you do all this, it should be a breeze.

If anything, Rome is a blessing to the Hungarian campaign, because otherwise it would be far too easy. The only thing to watch out for is Lithuania - don't leave your conquered Polish towns unguarded or they will pounce. If you'd like to take their lands too, try to get a crusade on them.

Believe me, fighting Rome is fun as anything. It's a real challenge, and capturing Constantinople gives some real satisfaction!

[Fakir]

In my Hungary campaign about a month ago, Poland was gone before the pope even had a chance to have them over for wine. I think it took about 5 or 6 turns until I got the faction destroyed pop-up.

I'll tell you guys, blitzing is a great strategy if you know how to do it. You need to be extremely efficient and consider every single unit golden. You can't be wasteful if you're gonna go quick. In my England campaign right now, I had conquered all of France, as well as rebel Toulouse, by turn 8. On VH/VH

[luciferleigh]

well if you cant beat them, join them, i mean, initially as others have stated, you can really compete with the romans in terms of armies in the early period, so ally with them, making sure to take belgrade for the mines, sofia as it is almost a castle in the early era and the 2 cuman states to your east, bucharest for the massive trade boost from constantinople and the ports that both territories allow you to build, the second cuman territory (dont really remember if its still called iasi) you have 2 choices, either keep it as a castle to hold of the russians, or turn it into a town, once again for the trade boost, this time from the east

for expansion, id say zagreb to the west, and eventually ragusa to the south of it, i say this because being mostly a horsearcher faction, most western factions have no answer to this (specially in the early era,) so venice is a prime target, if you can push for it, then id say go for venice itself, only problem is that they are allied to the pope so do it quickly and throw gold at him. Keep zagreb as a large town as long as possible (a chiv governor would be great) ignoring the wall upgrade, so by the time it should be upgraded to a large city, thats when you covert it over to a castle, and into a fortress just after converting it, reason is that again, no port, so less trade as a town, and being closer to the west means that its easier to re/train troops on that front. Once zagreb is able to produce the same troops as ragusa, time to covert that to a city, once again because of the port, having routes to mainland italy and western greece gives you a lot of income.

after that you can expand nearly anywhere, basically because now you have the money to sustain any expansion you like, depending on what campaign ai you use, the greeks will either keep your alliance which means a safe southern border, or theyll backstab you, basically giving you a reason to go in and take mainland greece, and your main prize, constantiople. For the poles you have quite a few options, being initially friendly to you, you could ally them, if not, the passes into the carpathian mountains are easily defendable, and once you can, push right up to the baltic, getting trade from all three seas will boost your economy again.

Just keep an eye on the HRE, aside from that, your all set

[guczy]

Thanks for all the tips guys! I allied with Byzantium making my game a lot easier, but i screwed up a little cause i declared on them a little bit early and got wasted. (this was mostly because i forgot that my returning crusader army lost all of its heavy cavalry in a really stupid battle. Well the battle wasnt that stupid, i was.)

[Gogolometro]

Do like me, play in early era byzantines and eliminate in turn 70 the Hungary.

[Radzeer]

Like others have said, ally with them (once you mopped up the southern rebels). I tend to do that in my Hungarian campaigns, and focus on expanding against Venice. It's not easy as they have superior troops too, but you don't fight them on a wide front, only in Croatia. And they are at war with the HRE anyway, creating a lot of distraction. The only issue is when the pope comes and demands to break the Byz alliance, but it seldom comes until well into the game. Then you can choose what to do.
Byz is a good shield against the Muslims and later the Mongols, they go to war against the Cumans and Kiev, so there is no reason to fight them unless you want to follow history.
Cheers from your fellow countryman!

[Supercargo]

0) You should ally with the Byzantines and Kievan Rus. Take all rebel settlements around you. Concentrate on the economy exclusively (build farms, roads, merchant building and churches for the health bonus), all you need is Magyar Cavalry for field battles and use merc infantry + some croats for the sieges. Keep 1 army down so that Byz won't backstab you (important). Build a lot of churches also to win the favour of the Pope.

1) You will be attacked by the HRE usually at this point. If not, trick them into attacking you by putting a minimum garrison to Esztergom but having a Horse Archer army nearby. Take out their field armies with your Magyar Cavalry (9 is enough for any Early Era army), it is pretty easy to win Heroic Victories with them, thus boosting your generals, then take Vienna and ask for peace. If you killed enough of them you can even ask for Salzburg as tribute.

1A) Wait until Poland and Kiev go to war then DOW Poland and take Krakow. Obey to the Pope though. If he orders you to hold your swords, do that. You have time. Then take whatever is left of Poland. Avoid war with the Kievans at all costs. There is nothing to gain by going East.

2) If you are lucky, HRE gets excommunicated. Call a crusade on Frankfurt. Crusader unit paired with your Magyar Cavalry are simply unbeatable. Take whatever you can from Germany.

3) Now you have the finances and armies to take out Lithuania. Do that. Ally with Novgorod to avoid war for now.

4) At this point you are a superpower. I advise taking out Venice and Genova (take out their crossbows with merc Frankish Knights and kill of the mass militia spears by your Horse Archers) and then going after the Romans.

Against the Romans, I advise using 5 X-bows or their very own Mourtatoi as archers, 3 mangonels work wonders against their armored infantry. Use some merc heavy cavalry + your own heavy infantry to hold the line. Note: Croats axemen are very effective in cutting down their heavy cavalry if it already engaged and you flank them.

Your main problem will be the Byz generals, but you should have enough trained assassins to kill them off before the battle starts.