Anvil Empires Aims to Make Every RTS Villager a Human: Why Siege Camp’s MMO-RTS Hybrid Could Change

If you’ve ever cared more about your Age of Empires villagers than your knights, this announcement will speak to you. Anvil Empires, a new MMO-RTS hybrid from the Foxhole devs at Siege Camp, is about to give every single grunt and gatherer a real human mind-and that changes everything. Here’s why this could actually shake up both strategy and MMO gaming, and why I, a “villager main” at heart, am genuinely intrigued (and a little skeptical) by what’s coming during Steam Next Fest.

Anvil Empires: Where Every Peasant Is a Player, Not Just a Cog

Every soldier, villager, and worker is controlled by a real player-every supply line and sword swing relies on actual human cooperation.
Battles are massive and persistent, with weeks-long campaigns and up to 1,000 players per server at launch.
Developers Siege Camp are leaning into their Foxhole pedigree: deep logistics, player-driven economies, and high-stakes warfare.
First public playtest runs June 9-16 during Steam Next Fest, giving us an early look at whether this scale of player-driven RTS can actually work.

Feature	Specification
Publisher	Siege Camp
Release Date	TBA (First playtest: June 9-16, 2025)
Genres	MMO, RTS, Medieval, Strategy, Simulation
Platforms	PC (Steam)

Massive medieval battle scene from Anvil Empires, showing dozens of real players in combat outside a fortified town. — When every soldier is another human, even a simple skirmish becomes a logistical and coordination nightmare-in the best way possible.

Let’s be real: most RTS games have always revolved around faceless, disposable villagers and soldiers. You, the omnipotent mouse-wielder, command hundreds of AI peons to build, gather, fight, and die. Anvil Empires takes that core idea and flips it: every single unit—whether a lowly woodcutter, a frontline knight, or a siege engineer—is a human player, not a bot. That immediately raises the stakes for coordination, ambition, and even trolling (let’s be honest, some people will try it).

Anvil Empires players working together in a village, building houses and gathering resources. — Building a functioning economy depends on real teamwork. If nobody wants to be the miller, your army starves—period.

Siege Camp already proved they could pull this off with Foxhole, their persistent World War-tinged MMOFPS where logistics and supply lines matter just as much as combat. The difference here? Instead of rifles and armored cars, it’s pikes, horses, and siege towers—and the medieval setting means you can’t just automate production with assembly lines. If there’s no one cutting wood for pikes or smelting iron for mail, your “unstoppable” knight charge fizzles. It’s a wild concept that feels like Age of Empires and EVE Online had a baby, with none of the strategic abstraction or safety nets we’re used to.

Players organize supply convoys in Anvil Empires to deliver resources to the battlefield. — Long supply lines mean real risk and reward. Imagine losing a convoy because someone fell asleep at the (literal) wheel.

This “everyone is a player” design choice is what genuinely excites me. It’s also what gives me pause. On paper, the idea of a 1,000-player persistent medieval war sounds incredible—a living, breathing world with real stakes and stories. I’ve seen Foxhole’s highs (epic sieges, desperate last stands saved by one heroic tanker) and its lows (logistics chains collapsing because everyone wanted to be a sniper). The question is: can Anvil Empires avoid the classic MMO pitfall where nobody wants to play the “boring” roles? Will people actually cooperate, or is this going to devolve into a medieval version of “Who’s stuck on woodcutting duty?”

Anvil Empires siege: players coordinate to operate battering rams and storm castle walls. — Battles will last for weeks—so every siege or defense is a marathon, not a sprint. You’re not just logging in for a 20-minute match.

From a business and technical perspective, this is ambitious bordering on audacious. MMO-RTS hybrids almost always promise the moon, but technical failures and population drop-offs are brutal. Let’s hope Siege Camp’s experience with Foxhole’s long-term wars and player-driven drama sets them up for success—if anyone can wrangle 1,000 medieval maniacs, it’s probably these folks.

Anvil Empires: players manage a bustling medieval city with markets and workshops. — It isn’t all battles and bloodshed—someone has to keep the economy running so armies can fight at all.

The upcoming playtest (June 9-16) is our first real chance to see if Anvil Empires can survive first contact with real players. Will people gravitate toward roles that matter, or will the game struggle with the same old “everyone wants to be the hero” syndrome? If Siege Camp can deliver a system where logistics and backline work are not only essential but genuinely rewarding, this could be a new era for both MMO and real-time strategy fans.

TL;DR: Anvil Empires is the MMO-RTS mashup we didn’t know we needed, putting real humans behind every villager, knight, and siege weapon. If the player-driven economy and weeks-long wars actually work, this could be the next big thing in persistent medieval strategy—or it could collapse under the weight of its own ambition. Either way, I’m lining up for the playtest, woodcutting axe in hand.

Source: Siege Camp via GamesPress