Greetings good fellows of the community! After many months of hard work we are now reaching ever closer to the release of the next major update. Internal quality assurance testing have been ongoing these past weeks and we have already undertaken early feedback sessions as we prepare to move into a larger scale closed BETA.

This update has taken some time, however, testing and polishing has been integral for bringing in a fresh lick of paint to the game and laying the foundations for the updates that will follow.



This update will bring with it an entirely redesigned user interface which will introduce some much needed modularity and scalability to the UI while also making Holdfast more accessible for all players.

One feature of this is the new ability to customise your soldier and playercard within the main menu. Before heading into battle, visit the barracks tab and customise your soldier for each and every nation. Any changes here will also be reflected within the in-game spawn menu.



*The above footage is a work in progress and may not be representative of the content upon release.

This introduction of the barracks will be the first phase of a new slew of cosmetic unlocks that will be obtainable through challenges coming with an update later this year. Playercard customisation for this update will be limited to begin with but we look forward to bringing in new medals, banners, weapon designs and much more into the barracks with the coming updates.

Rest assured that our commitment to Holdfast and its community remains as strong as ever! Revealing more of our plans for the year, sappers will be equipped with an improved arsenal of buildables.

The sapper was always intended to have a far great presence on the battlefield and the introduction of these new constructible objects will bolster their impact throughout matches and provide some far greater and robust defences to dynamically change up the battlefield with towers, palisades and much more.





Enlist and fight the foe today, over the hills and far away! Holdfast: Nations At War is now on sale at a grand 60% off! Complimenting this sale all of the games DLC is available at a discounted price for the duration of the Steam Summer Sale.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/589290/Holdfast_Nations_At_War/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/13424/Holdfast_Collectors_Edition/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/25822/Napoleonic_Pack/

Thank you for your patience and ongoing support.

On behalf of everyone at Anvil Game Studios, I wish you all, our dear community the best of health. :oheart:

http://discord.gg/holdfastgame







- Andrew ‘Refleax’ Farrugia
Game Director

On behalf of all the great folks at Anvil Game Studios.

Greetings good fellows of the community! We now step ever closer to the next update for Holdfast. The team are working endlessly to polish off this first of larger updates coming in 2023 all of which will aid in expanding and maintaining this great community we all love so dearly.

Soon we will be undertaking closed BETA sessions to test and gather feedback prior to the update's full release. While there is indeed a lot of change coming with this update it is a very important stage of our plans to ensure that players new and old can continue enjoying Holdfast for the years to come.


The newest members Gest, Matt and Grandayy slotted into the team effortlessly and have all already begun directly working on multiple sections of this next update coming to the game. They are all very excited for you to see what they have been working on.

Speaking of which, we’re pleased to announce that the long-awaited Howitzer artillery piece will be added to the game with this update. This new foe on the battlefield makes up what it lacks in range with devastating shrapnel explosions and blasts that will knock back those who are near.

Here’s a sneak peek of this beast of the battlefield.




*The above footage is a work in progress and may not be representative of the content upon release.

One of the changes coming to Holdfast with this update is an entire redesign of the game's user interface. Holdfast is a game that has been in development since 2013 and over the years, it has come to be rather dated in a lot of ways, often limiting the development of many features due to its lack of modularity.

Part and parcel of the above-mentioned redesign are customisable player cards. You will be able to brilliantly showcase your hard-earned achievements through a selection of customisable medals, portraits, titles and banners in your own style and liking. It will show to players you kill and also within the game’s leaderboards. These will be visible across all fronts of the game including Naval, Nations At War and Frontlines.

The initial introduction of these cards will have a limited pool of portraits, banners, titles and medals to pick from. Other updates will see the inclusion of a wide selection of customisable elements that can be unlocked by completing service challenges and feats of strength.

We’re doing this to limit the scope of the upcoming release ensuring that we’re able to deliver it to you as soon as humanly possible.



Our systems backend which cares for stats and experience collection as well as the regiment registry was similarly rudimentary in its construct. This severely limited our designers from enlisting features aiding with both community building and player retention. Needless to say, this was quite the involving task to see come to fruition but was a necessary step forward.

Thanks to these changes, the team has brought to life a more robust and responsive regiment registry along with various tools to bolster and assist with community building. The registry has also been made accessible whilst playing a match enabling new players to join a clan with ease.

Here’s a hint at some of the features that will be complimenting the new regiment registry in this coming update. Anvil Game Studios is determined to bring Holdfast into the new age all the while staying true to its core design values and pillars.


*The above image is a work in progress and may not be representative of the content upon release


Should you have yet to enlist and fight for Emperor or King, now’s the ripe moment to do so as Holdfast and all of its cosmetic DLCs will be on sale up to 55% off for a limited time! We hope to see you with us soon on the battlefield.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/589290/Holdfast_Nations_At_War/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/13424/Holdfast_Collectors_Edition/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/25822/Napoleonic_Pack/

We’ll have plenty more to show soon enough. On behalf of everyone at Anvil Game Studios, I wish you all, our dear community the best of health. :oheart:

http://discord.gg/holdfastgame







- Andrew ‘Refleax’ Farrugia
Game Director

On behalf of all the great folks at Anvil Game Studios.

Welcoming in the joys of spring Holdfast: Nations At War is now on sale at 60% off! Alongside this all of Holdfast’s dashing uniforms, loyalist and collectors edition DLCs can now also be picked up at 35% off their original price.

Since the release of the major update that introduced Austria, the DLCs for the games Napoleonic front have been expanded upon to include additional free uniforms for both the Austrians and the Italians. Check out the Napoleonic Pack and other DLCs below to get yourself suited and booted for the wars to come over the hills and far away.

Base Game
https://store.steampowered.com/app/589290/Holdfast_Nations_At_War/

Collectors Edition
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/13424/Holdfast_Collectors_Edition/

Napoleonic Pack
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/25822/Napoleonic_Pack/

Great War Pack
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/25824/Great_War_Pack/

Complimenting this game sale players new and old to the community can gather an additional haul of 1.5x experience points on official servers starting today and lasting for the remainder of the Steam Spring Sale ending on the 23rd of March 2023.



Speaking about community, feel free to join us on Discord for a chat. It's a great pleasure of ours to chat with fellows having a go at our game! As always and until next time, may good health be yours. :oheart:

We're working on the next update.

http://discordfastgame







- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Walki, Jackson, Rejenorst, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Gest, Matt, Grandayy & Winston (The Cat).

Greetings good fellows of the community! Continuing with our commitment to bringing Holdfast: Nations At War into the new age the team has been hard at work laying the foundations for our 2023 plans which are just as much exciting as they are ambitious.

Holdfast has always strived to break through boundaries and revolutionise this genre of roleplay shooters and our year ahead will remain focused on this target. Bringing forth the next chapter of Holdfast will ensure its continued growth and expansion of a community that we have all come to love so dearly.

Once more, we want to ensure that you can continue enjoying Holdfast for the years to come.

With this goal in mind, the Anvil Game Studios team has welcomed 3 additional talented individuals who will be joining us on this journey to uplift Holdfast, and community-focused games from the team beyond to newer and greater heights.



Those eagled-eyed fellows in the official Holdfast Discord server would have already noticed these new faces but as an official introduction, we now have the pleasure of introducing to you the latest members of the team.

Gest - DevOps

Joining us as part of our development operations he's the one that makes systems happen for developers to work efficiently. It is an instrumental role that will enable the team to produce larger, more inspiring releases.

Matt - Game Developer Int.

As an intermediate Game Developer, Matt will be heading the charge forward in our primary efforts to polish up the game ready for the current and next generation of Holdfast enjoyers to get their fix of musket and trench warfare for many more years to come.

Grandayy - Game Developer Jnr.

Covering all things Holdfast, Grandayy will be getting his hands dirty in bringing additional gameplay mechanics and content into the game to enhance the overall experience on the battlefield and at sea.

While the onboarding process of these new fellows does of course take time, especially with Holdfast’s impressive 1 million+ lines of codebase, through the mentoring of our seniors all these chaps have made excellent progress.

You can expect to see content in the game from them very soon.


Serving as a small show of thanks from us for enabling our creative visions to come to life and making a dream come true, starting on the 15th of March 2023 until the 24th of March 2023 players can hop on Holdfast and get an increase of 1.5x for all score earned on all official servers.

Join us on the above mentioned dates and feel free to say hello if you spot these new chaps in the game to bid them welcome!


Even with the team being busy to the brim onboarding these new individuals in the increasingly complex but awe-inspiring and rewarding field of game development, we're still set on bringing you more Holdfast content.

Be on the lookout for our next community-focused update targeting a late April release making accessible the regiment registry (clan system) while playing a match, bringing additional features to the said registry, a game-wide regiment chat, new leaderboards and much more.

This will all be coupled with a complete backend redesign of all the above-mentioned systems enabling us to continue expanding on similar features in the future. Holdfast is built on community and we want to continue showing our support as you have done so generously throughout these brilliant years.

On behalf of everyone at Anvil Game Studios, I wish you all, our dear community the best of health. :oheart:

http://discord.gg/holdfastgame







- Andrew ‘Refleax’ Farrugia
Game Director

On behalf of all the great folks at Anvil Game Studios.

We’re looking for the next Holdfast: Battlefield & Uniform to be added officially into the game!

It’s been almost a month since the 2nd Battlefield Forger contest kicked off and the time has come for a small update on the contest. The dedication of the artisans participating in the contest this year has encouraged us to further extend the contest by an additional 2 months making the new end date March 18th 2023.

This is to allow those partaking the time to truly explore and create their entry as they wish without the worry of a tight time constraint. Coinciding with this extension is the release of the new Holdfast: SDK Tutorial Series. These short but informative tutorials will provide an easy route for those interested in creating battlefields for Holdfast.

Holdfast: SDK Tutorial Series - View On YouTube


The submissions so far have been rather outstanding and we look forward to seeing what can be created within this new additional timeframe for the contest. Check out the Battlefield Forger 2.0 blog for more details on the contest and how to enter.

Battlefield Forger 2.0 Blog

Feeling inspired to get creative? Head over to the official Holdfast Discord server and obtain the Artisan role by visiting the #getting-started channel. There’s plenty of good fellows in there who can lend a helping hand should you need it too. :rheartr:

As always and until next time, may good health be yours.

http://discord.gg/holdfastgame






- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Wrexial, Walki, Jackson, Rejenorst, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Headbusta, Gest & Winston (The Cat).

Greetings good fellows of the community. As another delightful year for Holdfast comes to an end, everyone at Anvil Game Studios has their sights set on yet another exciting and ambitious chapter.

It's been a whole 5 years since Holdfast saw a release on Steam Early Access back in 2017. Wondering about whats next for the team? Our commitment to Holdfast and its most-beloved community hasn’t changed.

Staying true to our vision that will bring Holdfast into the new age, in 2023 the team will continue focusing their efforts on a series of planned updates targeted at improving existing content to deliver a smoother experience. You will also not be left wanting new gameplay additions while all of this is ongoing. We have updates in store on that front as well within the same year.

Our strategy is fine-tuned with something big in mind for 2023. We want to ensure players of generations both old and new can continue enjoying Holdfast and all it has to offer for the years to come. To fully enjoy the beauty of multiplayer titles, it is instrumental that at any point during the day one can find like-minded individuals to play with.

You’ll soon have the pleasure of meeting talented new developers joining the team. Those in our Discord have seen some of these new faces cropping up already. We’ll be leaving official introductions for the coming year offering them some peace and quiet as they get accustomed to the codebase and everything else required to make games happen.

Stay tuned for more Holdfast. On behalf of everyone here at Anvil Game Studios, I wish you all, our dear community the best of health. May your 2023 be filled with great joy and happiness! :oheart:

http://discord.gg/holdfastgame







- Andrew ‘Refleax’ Farrugia
Game Director

On behalf of all the great folks at Anvil Game Studios.

Jump into the festivities of Holdfast currently on sale at a whopping 65% off. Celebrating 5 delightful years of Holdfast we are now also discounting for the first time ever all of the game’s DLCs up to 60% off!

Now you’ll be getting more than ever! Coinciding with the release of Austria, DLCs for the game’s Napoleonic front have been expanded upon to include additional free uniforms for both the Austrians and the Italians.

Base Game
https://store.steampowered.com/app/589290/Holdfast_Nations_At_War/

Collectors Edition
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/13424/Holdfast_Collectors_Edition/

Napoleonic Pack
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/25822/Napoleonic_Pack/

In addition to the sale, there will be a limited time 1.5x XP event running to celebrate the release of the powerful Austrian Empire. Starting from December 22nd 2022 until January 5th 2023 you’ll be able to earn experience points at a faster rate, allowing you to unlock new heads, weapons and other cosmetics just in time for Christmas!



Speaking about community, feel free to join us on Discord for a chat. It's a great pleasure of ours to chat with fellows having a go at our game! As always and until next time, may good health be yours. :oheart:

http://discordfastgame







- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Wrexial, Walki, Jackson, Rejenorst, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Headbusta, Gest & Winston (The Cat).

The long awaited Austrians finally arrive! Ram your shot and prepare for battle, the Austrian nation marches into Holdfast with this major update release. These dashing fellows in white are the latest addition to the Napoleonic front of the game and feature unique uniforms, voice lines and music to accompany them.

Before grabbing your musket and heading to the front, take a moment to watch the release trailer below and take a dive into the rest of this blog post to find out what else is coming and meet the latest fellow joining us on the battlefield… Nick ‘Wobblebang’ Claus.



The Österreicher marches onto the field of battle in this major update. Featuring unique uniforms, voice lines, music and of course very splendid headwear, the Austrians will certainly make an impression on the battlefield and leave their mark.



These fine chaps in their glorious white are now available to play across all Holdfast Nations At War servers. So hop on Holdfast to enlist and fight for the Kaiser. :CrossSwords:


After the antics of Fred during the dark Halloween nights we have been sent the ‘gift’ of none other than Nick ‘Wobblebang’ Claus who has come to cleanse the land of Fred's minion’s evil doing during this most festive season. Good ol’ Nick has brought with him not only his unwavering festive spirit but he has even kindly placed some presents for us all under the Christmas trees.

Unfortunately for us however, someones been letting him at the whisky again… so don’t expect much from him as he can be a little explosive at times.



Players are able to select the Nick ‘Wobblebang’ Claus head for a limited time throughout this festive update, allowing them to spread Christmas joy the only way Mr Wobblebang knows how. Our good fellow is doing his best! :retro_beer:


Accompanying Nick and the Austrians will be a new battlefield for the games Napoleonic front. Inspired by the western Austrian state of Tyrol this small country town sits quietly beside a still lake making it the perfect place for a spot of fishing or in the case of Holdfast, some good old fashioned volleys of powder and shot.



The Hills of Tyrol is now playable across all Nations At War servers.


All of the available Nations At War DLCs have been updated! Following this release, owners of the game's Napoleonic uniform DLCs will be treated with a free upgrade to the DLC that will introduce additional uniforms from both Italy and Austria to the various packs.



This upgrade to the game's DLCs will also apply automatically to players who newly purchase them. All of Holdfast’s DLC will be on sale for the duration of the Steam Winter sale. Feel free to pick up some additional uniforms for your classes during this holiday season!

Napoleonic Pack
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/25822/Holdfast_Nations_At_War__Napoleon_Pack/
Collector's Edition
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/13424/Holdfast_Nations_At_War__Collectors_Edition/


Don't forget to join Discord for everything Holdfast! Partake in community-hosted events, enlist in a clan more widely known as regiments amongst the community, discuss the game and beyond or even chat with us, the game's developers. We'd love to hear about your recent escapades and your thoughts about the game.

http://discord.gg/holdfastgame







Changelog 85 - Game Version 2.11.8388.27593

Count
● 9 new features and improvements.
● 8 DLC additions.
● 50 additions and fixes to the Holdfast SDK.
● 1 quality of life addition.
● 2 graphical upgrades.
● 7 bug fixes.
● 1 optimisation.

Click here for the full change log.


We look forward to another groundbreaking year for Holdfast in 2023! There’s a whole lot more in store for Holdfast and beyond.

A special thanks to the following community members for their assistance in making this happen - CharlesEJesus, Cheekyfox, Denizen, Charles, ApexPhantom, NitroPunch, Delta, Binghampton, Davide, Mr Dario, Ed, Mattr and all those that joined us in our testing.

Thank you for your support and until next time, may good health be yours. :oheart:





- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Wrexial, Walki, Jackson, Rejenorst, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Headbusta, Gest & Winston (The Cat).

Austria is almost here! In just 3 days time the long awaited Austrian faction will become the latest faction to be added into the game. Mark your calendars for December 20th 2022, Austria arrives complete with stunning uniforms, unique voice lines and iconic marching tunes alongside one or two surprises for this festive time of year. :Santa:



Not long left! Don’t miss out on any Austrian action by turning on notifications for the official Holdfast: Nations At War Austria release trailer.



Join us on http://discord.gg/holdfastgame.




- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Wrexial, Walki, Jackson, Rejenorst, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Headbusta, Gest & Winston (The Cat).

The Österreicher finally make their way to Holdfast: Nations At War on December 20th 2022. Sporting dazzling white uniforms and flying the eagle, Austria will soon be made available as a playable faction within the game alongside some other additions to complement this update over the Holiday season.

Our countdown to Austria begins! Join the official Discord to get exclusive previews of Austria prior to their big release. 🦅

https://discord.gg/holdfastgame?event=1049023434027442247







- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Wrexial, Walki, Jackson, Rejenorst, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Headbusta, Gest & Winston (The Cat).