Holdfast Server Hosting — 150-Player Line Battles on Ryzen 9 Hardware
Rent a Holdfast: Nations At War dedicated server at RespawnHost. Pay-per-use, billed by the second, AMD Ryzen 9 9950X with high single-core boost, Steam Workshop mods, RCON, Frankfurt location. Plans 2 GB to 16 GB from €5.50/month.
Rent a Holdfast Server — Everything You Need
Holdfast: Nations At War has been on Steam since Early Access on 21 September 2017 and reached the 1.0 release on 5 March 2020. Developed and self-published by Malta-based indie studio Anvil Game Studios (anvilgamestudios.com), the game keeps shipping updates — most recently the free Age of Sail expansion on 5 March 2026 (separate Steam app, AppID 4434720) with Spain as a new naval faction, 15 new maps and 7 ship classes.
- Holdfast server setup, configuration, mods — the full guide for line battles, naval servers, RCON admin, and Steam Workshop mods
Who plays Holdfast and why?
Holdfast is not a mass-market shooter. It is a 150-player battle system for organised line battles, naval combat and sieges. Disciplined community regiments drill weekly, coordinate drum and fife commands, and fire on order — anyone shooting out of sync ruins their regiment’s volley. It is probably the most precise Napoleonic simulation you can find in multiplayer form on Steam.
The game officially supports “over 150 players per server”. Standard configurations:
- Army servers: 150 slots (75 vs. 75)
- Naval servers: 80 slots (40 vs. 40)
- Community setups with higher slot counts are possible — the
maximum_playersparameter in server config has no hard cap
Currently playable Napoleonic factions: British Empire, French Empire, Kingdom of Prussia, Russian Empire, Kingdom of Italy, Austrian Empire. The free total-conversion DLC Holdfast: Frontlines adds WWI (Central Powers vs. Entente). From March 2026 the Age of Sail expansion adds four naval factions (British, French, Spanish, Privateers).
Why RespawnHost for Holdfast?
| Argument | What that means for your server |
|---|---|
| AMD Ryzen 9 9950X boosting up to 5.7 GHz | Holdfast ticks one main thread — single-core CPU performance is the most important hardware factor for 100+ slot stability |
| NVMe Gen4 SSD | Fast save/replay access, Steam Workshop mod downloads without IO bottleneck |
| PletX Gaming DDoS protection | Line battle events are popular DDoS targets — protection is free on every plan |
| Frankfurt am Main location | Low latency for DACH and Western EU players, central hop for UK, NL, FR communities |
| Pay-per-use | You only pay when the server runs. Line battle weekend? Pay for 4 hours, not a month. |
| Steam Workshop mods in panel | Enter Workshop IDs, restart server, mods are live — no SFTP wrangling |
| Official server software | We run the Anvil-documented dedicated server (Steam AppID 1424230), no custom forks |
Holdfast plans (May 2026)
| Plan | RAM | Recommended for | Pay-per-use | Flat-rate 24/7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mini | 2 GB | 20-30 slots naval / test server | €0.0076/h | €5.50/month |
| Starter | 4 GB | 50-80 slots army or naval | €0.0141/h | €10.12/month |
| Basic | 6 GB | 80-120 slots army | €0.0183/h | €13.20/month |
| Standard | 8 GB | 120-150 slots army | €0.0232/h | €16.72/month |
| Pro | 10 GB | 150 slots army + some Workshop mods | €0.0275/h | €19.80/month |
| Advanced | 16 GB | Mod-heavy line battles, event servers, parallel instances | €0.0391/h | €28.16/month |
Note on hardware minimum requirements: Anvil Game Studios and the official wiki do not publish hard RAM or CPU minimums for dedicated servers. The table above is based on community experience from line battle events. For pure vanilla army servers, less RAM is often enough; with Steam Workshop mods (especially map and unit packs) the requirement rises noticeably.
Pay-per-use makes sense for Holdfast
Holdfast is played 90% during event evenings: line battles typically Friday/Saturday/Sunday, naval sessions usually once per week per regiment. With a classic flat rate, you pay for 720 hours every month — and the server is empty for 600 of them.
Example: 8 GB plan (€0.0232/h):
| Usage | Hours / month | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 24/7 | 720 h | approx. €16.72 |
| 3 h every evening (training + event) | 90 h | approx. €2.09 |
| Fri+Sat+Sun, 5 h each (line battle weekend) | 60 h | approx. €1.39 |
| One league event per month (8 h) | 8 h | approx. €0.19 |
With the auto-stop feature in the panel, the server shuts itself off after X minutes without players — you don’t have to remember to do it.
What you can run on your Holdfast server
- Organise line battles — Up to 150 players per server in two lines, own regiments, drummer/fifer coordination
- Private training server — For your regiment, password-protected, custom drill map loadout
- Naval battles — Up to 80 slots, 40v40, ships of the line and frigates, crew mechanics
- Public server — Open, with auto-balancer and warmup drill maps for newcomers
- Modded server — Steam Workshop mods via server config commands
mods_installed,load_mod,load_mod_server_only,mods_installed_server_only(Workshop IDs) - WWI Frontlines server — Same engine, different era via the free total conversion
- Age of Sail server — Once Anvil ships the hosting tooling for the new naval expansion
Mods on Steam Workshop — what works and what does not
Holdfast has had an official SDK since 28 May 2020 (currently SDK 5.0). The community distributes maps, uniforms, flags, sound mods, and script mods through the Steam Workshop. You subscribe in the client with two clicks; the dedicated server auto-loads mods via the mods_installed config commands.
Console caveat: Players on PS5 or Xbox Series (console release July 2025, with cross-play) can join unmodded cross-play servers. The moment you activate Workshop mods, console players are excluded — Unity’s IL2CPP AOT compilation does not allow dynamic code loading on console SDKs. Mods are PC-only. Cross-play works on unmodded servers.
RCON, admin, server config
Holdfast servers ship with a built-in RCON system:
- Configuration via the file documented in the official wiki (wiki.holdfastgame.com/Server_Configuration)
- RCON login with the
server_admin_passwordfrom your config - In-game commands with the
rcprefix and tab autocompletion (wiki.holdfastgame.com/Remote_Console_Commands)
At RespawnHost you also get:
- SFTP access for direct config editing (guide for large files via SFTP)
- Web file manager for quick edits in the browser
- Live console output in the panel with search
- One-click backups, restore in minutes
Concrete recommendation
- Private regiment training server (≤ 50 slots) → 2-4 GB plan, pay-per-use, around €1-3/month
- Weekly 80-slot line battle → 6 GB plan, around €2-6/month
- Big 150-slot event with Workshop mods → 10-16 GB plan, around €5-15/month depending on mod depth
- 24/7 public server → 8 GB plan, around €17/month flat-rate equivalent
Configure your Holdfast server | SFTP setup for large save files