Mate, you made half a dozen regiments, with entirely different members and none survive today. It was leaders like yourself that tried to get their regiment to disband once the CO left. Great regiments like the 33rd, 63e, 59th, 15YR survived and thrived with their founding leader stepping down. Gaming and friendship communities regiments survive. The regiments you mentioned "91st/92nd/84e/14e/8Lr/etc" are all long gone. Regiments like the 33rd and 59th have been around for three times their life-span. I struggle to see why people like to see NW in 2013 as the golden years. I am probably the only leader, who managed a large regiment in 2013 and still plays in 2019. I think the community on the whole at the moment is much nicer and friendlier than back in 2013.
Infact, I remember seeing FSE posts in 2013/2014 of people leaving saying the community got cancer. The problem is FSE should have further developed the game. Life cycle is critical to any product. Adding the Rhine, for example, is a typical mistake. Adding a re-skin of France/Prussia over a new faction such as Ottoman Empire is mind-boggling. There could have been a range of new countries added; from Spain to Portugal to the USA. Personally I think the Ottomon Empire, simply due to the large amount of Turks playing atm.
You're right on the hybrid problem. Regiments seem to want to be the largest and often over-extend. The 59th regiment has never had merges or ever allowed a none-59th member to walk into the 59th. The merit of community matters and many regiments fall in that regard. From 2015-2018 we were the largest and most competitive big regiment in NW and there weren't many rivalries. 77y dropped off, 63e lost all companies. Only the 59th, 33rd and what remained of the K-KA could field three competitive companies in an event.
The 59th spent a year in Holdfast, and has walked back into NW as one of the biggest and competitive regiments in NW. It does take community and the 63e not returning from Holdfast speaks volume about NW atm.
Alas.
Just to be perfectly clear, I am not answering this to stir drama or anything of the sort but you have a very particular way of seeing your regiment Kaide and while a large part of what you say is true, I also feel you are completely misleading yourself on several other aspects. You can claim the 59th is the best NW community, has been and will ever be, that's completely fine by me. Saying you are also one of the regiments which was active back in the days and still is nowadays (in comparison to the aforementioned regiments) is still more than a fair point, despite the break / temporary move to Holdfast.
However, I really fail to understand how you can believe that the 59th has ever been in contention for the title of the most competitive and largest regiment of NW. Obviously, it's not the term 'largest' being wrong here (even if I'd say it's pretty hard to prove over a time-lapse of 8 years), but the competitive one. The 59th has
never achieved any relevant placing against the regiments you mentioned. While I am pretty sure there are several results you can be proud of against these top regiments, you have never been even close to them in term of competitiveness. You were never a rival of the 8Lr, 91st, 92nd, 14e, K-KA, 84e. You were actually far from being even close to playing in the same field.
I am not trying to take away what you accomplished with the 59th, only a fool would. I am genuinely (and I meant it), happy to see old faces such as yours playing NW again and I also strongly believe that regiments who lasted over time such as the 59th had much more of a positive influence over the community rather than regiment which were created on the basis of recruiting already experienced and skilled players to beat other top regiments, but failed to survive the longevity test.
But going around (because that's not the first time I see you doing this) and claiming you have been the most competitive 'big' regiment in NW from 2015-2018 is living in your little fantasy world.