Is pushing the limits of napoleonic warfare with 150+ man servers and (generally) good naval and land gameplay. To add on the the land gameplay there are these things called regiments. Regiments are basically clans or communities set up for the game that play semi-competitively. They bring alot to the community and are generally great fun.

2021 Update (2023 Update at bottom):
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Well, wasn't that some time ago. I got 2000+ hours on this game now, and I have a lot to add to my initial review (310.7 hours.)

Tldr: Pub is ♥♥♥♥, join a regiment if you want to have fun.

Holdfast: Nations at War is an extremely addictive game, but under one condition. You MUST join a Regiment. I will return to Regiments after I talk about public play.

Public play is pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ overall. It has its charm, the VoIP in this game has its moments as long as you are keen to edgy jokes. If you are good at the game (specifically melee), the pub lobbies can be pretty entertaining since you'll be cutting through crowds like a scythe to the grain.

The main gamemode of official land combat servers is battlefield. Both sides get a couple hundred respawns and both sides kill eachother for 15-20 minutes. Rarely will there be RP, rarely will officers try to form lines, rarely will there be any team cohesion.

The secondary gamemode is Siege. Siege is alright, for a new player I imagine it would be a massive improvement for new players. Attackers have no reinforcements to worry about, defenders get a couple-few hundred reinforcements depending on the map. Theres a higher chance for team cohesion, forming lines on the walls and such, but its still disappointingly rare.

The third gamemode that is usually slept on is Naval. Naval is surprisingly solid. You can find roleplay coming from the capitains pretty often, sometimes even getting some sweet volleys with the cannons. Its good fun, but even with the chances of roleplay raised, people dont play it as much (they get good numbers after sales).

The land gameplay is very bare-bones, and could massively benefit from something as simple as getting someone (paid or not, I know I'd do it without a second thought) to write up a couple new server configs. Server configs are the things that determine whether the round is battlefield (respawns enabled), assault (respawns off), harcore, ect. You can also override class loudouts to give them different amounts of ammo and weapons and stuff. But the devs won't be putting that much effort into pubs any time soon, unfortunately.

Generally you can probably get 200 hours if all you play is the pub, which is a fate worse than death compared to regiments.

Regiments are clans that play in 100v100 linebattles. There are usually around 3 regiments to each team. Most of the time regiments are fighting in lines, shoulder to shoulder, however there are also "specials" that play Artillery, Cavalry, and Skirmishers/Light Infantry. Most well performing regiments don't have a large in-game roleplay aspect, but the entire experience is much more proper than pubs, since there are ranks and medals to earn, and the feeling of releasing a 15-20 musket volley onto the enemy is a timeless beauty.

If you want any type of skill in this game, you have to join a Regiment. They will make you a melee god, they will teach you where to place your reticle.

Even outside of holdfast, regiments have great people to hang out with. It doesn't matter what regiment you join, regardless of their actual skill, you'll always find a chill group of people to hang out with.

Most regiment don't take a lot of compulsory commitment, so if you can only make one day a week, they wont put it past you.

Recruitment. If you are a newer player, and you are starting to get frustrated with regiment recruiters, please do not be rude to them. They are volunteering their time to try to bring fresh dudes to their group. They have no malicious intent, they only want to improve their regiment. Recruits are very important for a regiment because the more men you bring, the more specials you can bring, the more lines you can run. The bigger the regiment, the more "fun".

Regiment suggestions:

More Time/Commitment/Discipline: Nr.9, 51st. Nr.9 is completely NA, and have no comp side. 51st is both.

Less Time/Commitment/Discipline: TRR, KRA; pretty much any of the other mainstream regiments.

General Reg Picking Tips: Stay away from small regiments (Sub 12 active). A lot of the time they'll be objectively lacking in quality, and at worst trolls. If you have a lot of time on your hands, small regiments will always appreciate your membership, just make sure you are able to discern ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ troll regiments from actual respectable small regiments.

Bigger regiments will always perform better than small regiments, with little exception.

Welp, thats pretty much all I could think of right now. Might edit again in the future. Here's my discord tag if you ever need help with anything. Regiment or not, I'll show you how to melee and stuff. WobblierWarrior#0643
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2023 Update:

Welp guys. The North American side of the game has been pretty much dead for the last 6 months. All of the good NA regiments have pretty much died or moved on. TRR is collapsed, KRA is completely different from when I last wrote, Nr. 9 moved on to Bannerlord and left Holdfast entirely. Melee is basically dead, almost everyone I used to play with for years are gone with time. Updates have slowed basically to a halt, development has been split or possibly even entirely shifted over to a new IP that Anvil Games Studio's is working on.

If you're an EU, it isn't too late to enjoy the game. But us Americans, the golden days are long long behind us at this point.

Over and Out, Marechal Wob.