Anvil Empires Stress Test: Foxhole Dev’s Ambitious MMO-RTS Blends Epic Scale with Rough Edges

Every once in a while, a game comes along that has the kind of “what if?” pitch you can’t help but get obsessed with as a lifelong gamer. That’s exactly where I landed with Anvil Empires, the latest genre experiment from Siege Camp, the team that built Foxhole. When I heard this new MMO let actual players fill every role-villager, soldier, builder, and blacksmith-I immediately had to know if the reality would match the ambition. After their first public stress test during Steam Next Fest, I got a taste of the vision, and, as expected, it’s a blend of jaw-dropping scale and some early growing pains.

Anvil Empires Hands-On: Big Ambitions, Bumpy Beginnings for This Living Medieval World

• 12,000+ players stormed Steam Next Fest for Anvil Empires’ first open trial-eclipsing Foxhole’s lifetime concurrency.
• Every unit is a real player, pulling the MMO-RTS hybrid from theory into living, chaotic action.
• Combat and proximity chat drew early complaints—with many calling melee battles “unpolished” or “boring.”
• Community déjà vu: The same skepticism Foxhole faced crops up again, but Siege Camp’s long-game approach might pay off.

Feature	Specification
Publisher	Siege Camp
Release Date	TBD
Genres	MMO, Real-Time Strategy, Simulation, Sandbox
Platforms	PC (Steam)

Anvil Empires isn’t just another medieval MMO competing for your session time alongside New World or Mordhau. If you played Foxhole, you’re familiar with Siege Camp’s obsession with human-driven worlds. This new title ditches AI minions entirely: every sword arm in the field, every peasant digging turnips, every supply-run back to the main base—the human element is the core. In theory, that should offer more memorable stories and emergent gameplay than any NPC-riddled battlefield ever could.

During Steam Next Fest, Siege Camp invited the masses to slam their servers and see what held. And people showed up—over 12,000 simultaneous players, which is wild, both for a test and for context: Foxhole, despite cult status, never hit numbers like that. That alone signals real appetite for games that make every strategic decision a human drama rather than a click-fest against computer logic.

The game’s structure is genuinely fascinating. Imagine the macro economy and logistics of old-school RTS, except you have to talk your way through supply chains, politics, and defense plans with actual people. It’s a future I want to see realized—one where the quiet hero is the logistics captain making sure the right iron gets to the right outpost, not just the frontline brawler with the shiniest armor.

Big Numbers, Big Challenges: The Reality of a Playable Human Army

But, and there’s always a but: the test also exposed some major pain points that MMOs of this scope can almost never avoid early on. Chief among them, according to the flood of player chatter on Steam and Reddit, is the combat. There’s no getting around it—right now, fighting feels clunky, barely more engaging than an old Warcraft 2 peasant slap-fest. “It’s not fun and sure doesn’t feel good,” wrote one participant. “You feel like one of those tiny NPCs with two attack animations.” The proximity voice chat was supposed to add immersion, but on a crowded field, it quickly devolved into noisy chaos.

Honestly, some of these teething problems were inevitable. Siege Camp is tackling a kind of scale rarely seen since EVE Online started monetizing betrayal. If you remember Foxhole’s early days, backlash about janky combat and confusing organization was everywhere—until steady updates and community buy-in slowly turned it into the cult classic it is now. Anvil Empires might get there too, but it’ll need a serious upgrade to moment-to-moment gameplay if it wants to hold onto this sudden influx of curious players.

For Gamers, Early Days Mean Cautious Optimism—and Real Frustration

If you’re anything like me, you want new multiplayer worlds to play in, and Anvil Empires is legitimately one to root for—at least conceptually. MMO-RTS hybrids are still rare, and Siege Camp’s reputation for supporting Foxhole post-launch gives me hope they’ll keep plugging away at the rough edges. I’m excited by the long-term potential for emergent stories and meaningful collaboration, but I’m just as wary about whether the core action (especially melee and siege combat) can match the rest of the vision. If it stays this shallow, some players won’t stick around for the long haul.

Whether Anvil Empires can carve out a devoted community, like Foxhole did, depends on two things: Siege Camp’s willingness to address dull combat and basic communication tools, and whether gamers stay patient—or move on to the next big multiplayer thing. For now, it’s an early-access curiosity with enormous ambition, promising tech, but a lot of work left to do.

TL;DR: Promising MMO Sandbox, but Core Gameplay Needs an Iron Forge

Anvil Empires’ opening stress test showed there’s hunger (and server tech) for player-powered medieval warfare on a massive scale, but the fun factor isn’t keeping up with the player count just yet. If Siege Camp’s history is any guide, the roughness isn’t a deal-breaker—but only if the core action gets some serious love. It’s one to watch, not one to install and forget.