War Thunder Italy Ground Tree: The Hungarian Half Nobody Expects

The first surprise in the Italian ground tree is not Italian. The lower ranks are partly Hungarian — a branch of 11 ground vehicles running from the 39.M Csaba up to the KF41, added with the “Sons of Attila” update (2.29) in September 2023. A player who picked Italy expecting Turin-built armour finds themselves driving Turáns and a Zrínyi long before reaching anything made in Italy.

That is not trivia. It is why the early tree plays nothing like its reputation, and it is the reason the branch is worth starting at all.

What each Hungarian vehicle makes you do

Vehicle	What you are driving	How you play it
39.M Csaba	Rank I armoured car, 20 mm gun, five-round clip	Flank and crew-snipe. Penetration is thin even for Rank I, so a frontal exchange is a lost exchange
Turán I	First real medium	The first hull you can take a hit in. Aim at sides — the gun’s penetration is its weak point
Zrínyi II	BR 2.7 casemate, 105 mm howitzer	The argument for the whole branch. Fire, then back out at 40 km/h
Turán III	75 mm gun, thicker hull	Where the branch stops feeling like a starter and starts holding a band
ZSU-57-2 / ZSU-23-4	Self-propelled AA at the top of the subtree	Flexibility once air starts deciding matches

Zrínyi II is the one to understand. It mounts a 105 mm howitzer on a Turán chassis at BR 2.7, with 75 mm of frontal armour on both hull and turret, 52 rounds, and a HEAT round carrying 120 mm of penetration flat across every distance bracket. Its stock shell is HE with only 27 mm of penetration — until you unlock the HEAT round, this vehicle is an artillery piece, not a tank killer. That single unlock is the difference between frustration and dominance, and it comes early in the modification tree.

Reload runs 13 seconds with a basic crew and 10 seconds aced, and that number is the price of the calibre. Everything below follows from it.

Why reverse speed is the signature

The Zrínyi II’s gearbox drives it forward and backward at the same 40–44 km/h. Every Turán-series vehicle shares the trait.

This inverts how casemate tank destroyers usually die. Normally the mistake is committed forward, and the only way out is a slow crawl with thin rear armour facing the enemy. With matched reverse, the sequence becomes: pick a position, fire, reverse behind cover for the full 13-second reload, then re-peek on your own terms. Smoke grenades cover the withdrawal.

Learn this before anything else in the tree. It is the single habit that makes the branch work, and it transfers to no other nation because almost no other casemate can reverse at its own top speed.

Research order that works

Take the Csaba only as far as you must, then get into Turán I and build a working medium before touching the casemates. The Zrínyi II is strong at its rating but it is not a first vehicle — it rewards map knowledge and punishes an unfamiliar player, because a turretless gun cannot answer a flank.

Unlock the 42M HEAT round on the Zrínyi before you judge it. Then add the Turán III once your core band is stable, and keep each addition within roughly one BR step of what you already play; what an uptier costs explains the price of skipping bands. Repair bills rise steeply toward the Hungarian SPAA and top-tier end, so arrive there with a lineup that already earns.

Decision rules

• If you are reversing in a straight line, you are doing it right. If you are turning around, you are already lost.
• Never judge the Zrínyi II on its stock HE. The HEAT unlock changes which vehicles it can kill.
• Use the 13-second reload for repositioning, not for waiting. Idle reload time is the habit that gets Hungarian players killed.
• Add AA when aircraft start deciding your matches, not before.

If this is your first tree, check the choice against first vehicle criteria, and close the lineup with BR spread before you queue.