I post my Hungary game right now because it's at a crossroad.
I wanted to use the new opportunities brought by the fact Hunyadi is no longer a regent. That early game passivity has always prevented me from playing Hungary, so I just wanted to punch Poland and Ottomans, get strong, and invade Austria for Take that, von Habsburgs.
I happily started exactly as I planned, being relatively small and expanding at a moderate pace, but everything went a bit mad when I could force PU on the entirety of the Kalmar Union, and when Russia rivalled me even if I did not plan to expand towards the east. I'm still uncertain about what to make of that game, and what I should exactly try to do. It's been a lot of fun so far, that's at least that.
The starting position of Hungary is really enjoyable. They are weaker than all their neighbours once they consolidate the Balkans, but they have the diplomatic tools to bring massive coalitions against these neighbours.
The economy is extremely bad compared to the size because trade is atrocious, and the Black Army is an insane moneysink. This really pushes Hungary in the direction of spending a lot of money to fight a major war, and then recover for an extended period of time, that's actually very enjoyable. The modifiers you can stack are totally crazy. With the Mercenary Discipline from the Age of Reformation, and the fact I took Offensive ideas, and the fact I had an advisor and a strict ruler, my full frontline of merc infantry had
130% discipline in the early 16th century. Oh god those casualties. Everyone was melting, even that super blobbed AI Prussia (I had literally 0 impact on that, except maybe punching Bohemia and Poland), or France who was completely annihilated in battles. It's nice to have morale, it's not good if that leads to you taking casualties for longer.
I was almost constantly heavily in debt, and as expected, this is truly now the majors that you need to fight to get money.
No way I could get that in a previous patch. That kinda balances the fact minors don't give me anything anymore.
Things are a lot more stable now, I took it slow and finally consolidated my powerbase and spammed manufactories. I annexed all my vassals and my Scandinavian PUs, to get that beautiful map.
Which is a lot better if we consider that I also have a massive Spain in a PU.
Things finally look good on all fronts, and I am ready to go.
With all my annexations, i have been able to max absolutism already. And that's where things get interesting. I have so many opportunities with that run. My PUs were totally lucky, I did not pick diplo, did not marry old rulers, they just happened. I don't know if I should use those advantages, even if the run was not directed towards blobbing at all.
But that Orthodox One Faith is very tempting. Because yes, I am orthodox, obviously. I'm still uncertain whether I should just get Austria now, or try to push it further.