Most multiplayer games call a battle involving 100 players massive. Anvil Empires is aiming considerably higher, building a persistent medieval sandbox where as many as 1,000 players can potentially fight shoulder to shoulder in the same real-time battle.
Developed by Siege Camp, the studio behind Foxhole, Anvil Empires takes many of the ideas that made its previous game unusual and transfers them into a huge medieval world built almost entirely around player cooperation, warfare and logistics.
Rather than jumping between traditional multiplayer matches, players exist inside a persistent online world where thousands of people contribute towards enormous wars that can continue for weeks.
Every soldier on the battlefield is another real player, but fighting is only one part of what Anvil Empires is attempting to simulate.
Players will be able to establish settlements and gradually transform them from small hamlets into large towns shared between dozens or potentially hundreds of players. Farming, hunting, animal husbandry and resource gathering all feed into the wider economy, while neighbouring settlements can trade resources with one another.
Those settlements aren’t just cosmetic bases either.
Everything being produced can ultimately support the war effort. Armies require food, weapons and equipment, meaning players working behind the front lines could be just as important as those swinging swords on the battlefield.
Siege Camp says wars won’t simply be decided through combat. Maintaining a strong economy and functioning supply lines will be essential for keeping armies fed, armed and ready to continue fighting.
That could result in players taking on extremely different roles within the same war. While one group might be marching towards an enemy fortress, others could be farming food, transporting supplies, producing equipment or constructing new defensive positions hundreds of players depend upon.
Large settlements can also be protected using elaborate multi-level keeps and fortifications.
Taking one of those positions won’t necessarily be as simple as gathering an army and attacking the front gate. Players can establish dedicated siege camps before an assault and construct equipment including siege ladders and battering rams to break through enemy defences.
The enormous player count is where Anvil Empires becomes particularly ambitious.
Siege Camp has developed its own R² Engine specifically to support extremely dense multiplayer encounters. According to the developer, the technology is designed to allow up to 1,000 players to participate together on a battlefield.
That could potentially create medieval battles on a scale rarely seen in multiplayer games, with individual players effectively becoming a single soldier within a much larger army rather than the central hero of the conflict.
The world itself is also intended to remain unpredictable because much of the conflict is created by players.
Settlements can be raided, armies can travel across the world, and players can even roam by sea or horseback looking for enemy villages to attack and resources to steal. Siege Camp has previously described the game’s conflict as being driven by player actions rather than relying on artificial PvP encounters.
The comparison with Foxhole is difficult to ignore.
Foxhole similarly puts individual players inside a much larger persistent war where manufacturing, transporting equipment and maintaining logistics can influence the front line. However, Siege Camp says Anvil Empires puts a greater emphasis on settlement building while dramatically increasing the number of players it hopes to support during individual battles.
Development is still ongoing, and Anvil Empires isn’t ready for a full release yet.
As of September 2026, its Steam page still lists its release date as “To be announced” and allows players to request access to the Anvil Playtest. The game remains in pre-alpha development, with Siege Camp continuing to expand its systems.
Recent development updates have included work on cargo boats, naval industry, map expansion, territory zones, new siege equipment and additional town structures, suggesting the scale of its player-driven world is continuing to grow.
There are plenty of multiplayer survival and medieval games built around constructing bases and fighting other players, but Anvil Empires is approaching the idea from a very different direction.
Instead of asking a handful of friends to build a castle together, it wants entire communities to construct towns, establish economies, supply enormous armies and fight wars involving thousands of players.
And if Siege Camp manages to deliver on its goal of putting as many as 1,000 people into a single real-time medieval battle, Anvil Empires could produce some genuinely enormous player-driven wars.
Anvil Empires is currently in development for PC. A full release date has not yet been announced, although players can request access to its ongoing playtest through Steam.