Frontkrieg Economy Guide: Resources, Budget & Bergen Island

Economy in Frontkrieg decides wars before the first shot is fired. This guide covers how resources, budget, and morale work in the free, no-pay-to-win browser strategy game set in World War 1 — and how to avoid bankruptcy by day ten. The short answer: watch your three resource categories (food, materials, energy), keep province morale high because it directly multiplies your taxes, build harbors and railways in your richest provinces, and secure a steady oil supply — without it, your tanks, artillery, and navy simply grind to a halt. This article is for beginners and intermediate players who have already taken their first steps in the game.

Key takeaways:

• The game has 7 resource types + money; resources fall into 3 categories — food, materials, energy
• Taxes are calculated daily: population × 0.1 × (morale/100) — morale directly multiplies income
• A deficit in any resource category cuts province morale by 15 points
• A harbor adds +25% to province production, a railway adds another +10%
• The neutral island of Bergen grants tenfold oil output to whoever can hold it

How the Frontkrieg Economy Works

Each of the 4,800 provinces on the map produces one of seven resources: grain, fish, iron, lumber, coal, oil, or gas. Production accrues every real-time hour, while the big economic events — taxes, consumption, morale recalculation — happen once per game day. Money is the eighth, national resource: it is not tied to provinces and sits in your state treasury.

The seven resources are grouped into three categories, and it is the categories that determine whether your economy is healthy:

• Food — grain and fish. Consumed daily by your population and army.
• Materials — iron and lumber. The backbone of construction and unit production.
• Energy — coal, oil, and gas. Fuel for heavy equipment, the navy, and factories.

One important nuance: shortages are counted per category, not per resource. If you run out of grain but have plenty of fish, there is no famine. But when the entire energy category goes negative, the penalties hit instantly.

Money and Taxes: Where the Budget Comes From

Every nation starts with a treasury of 50,000 money. Sounds like a lot — until you realize a single heavy tank costs 40,000. Without steady income, you will be left with infantry and regrets.

Your main source of money is daily taxes. The formula is simple: each province yields population × 0.1 money, multiplied by its current morale percentage. A province with one million people at 100% morale brings in 100,000 per day; the same province at 40% morale yields just 40,000. The conclusion is obvious: morale is not about happy faces — it is your effective tax rate.

The second channel is trading surplus resources on the market and seizing your rivals' richest provinces. Capturing one industrial region with a large population often pays better than three empty steppe provinces.

Morale: The Invisible Multiplier of Your Entire Economy

Each province's morale drifts toward a target value that depends on several factors:

• Distance from your capital. Every map "hop" away from your capital cuts the morale target by 8 points. An empire stretched across half of Europe pays for it in hard cash.
• Resource deficits. Each category in the red means −15 morale across your whole nation. Two deficits at once is −30, and your economy is already suffocating.
• Gradual change. Morale moves toward its target step by step, roughly 2 points per day, so the consequences of bad decisions keep catching up with you for weeks.

The practical takeaway: before expanding, calculate whether you can feed the new lands. A distant captured province at 20% morale pays almost no taxes, but its population starts eating your grain from day one.

Buildings That Double Your Economy

Frontkrieg has no "useless" economic buildings, but two of them are mandatory for rich provinces:

• Harbor — +25% to the province's resource production. Coastal provinces only; also unlocks sea trade and amphibious landings.
• Railway — +10% to production plus faster troop movement. Combined with a harbor, that is +35% output.

A tip: upgrade provinces with the most valuable resources first — oil and iron. A harbor in an oil-producing province pays for itself faster than any other investment, because oil is the scarcest resource of the mid-game.

Factories unlock from game day 6 and cost from 250 lumber, 250 iron, and 150 oil plus 20,000 money. Without them you cannot build artillery or tanks, so lay down your first factory as soon as the economy allows.

Oil Is the Blood of War

If grain feeds the infantry, oil moves everything else. Look at the upkeep numbers: an armored car burns 1 oil per hour, a tank 2, a heavy tank and a bomber 3 each, a battleship 4. A squadron of ten tanks consumes 480 oil per day — the output of several provinces.

Production runs on oil too: a fighter costs 80 oil, a tank 150, a battleship 300. A player whose energy category runs dry is effectively fighting tanks with infantry.

Bergen Island: The Oil Rush

There is one special spot on the map — the neutral island of Bergen. It belongs to none of the starting nations, can only be reached by amphibious landing, and its province yields tenfold oil and money output. Every day the in-game newspaper reports who controls the island, so a takeover cannot stay secret.

Bergen is a classic trap for the greedy: holding a remote island without a navy is impossible, and its morale always suffers from the distance to your capital. But for a nation with a strong fleet, it is the most profitable real estate in the game. Read more about naval mechanics on our blog.

Five Mistakes That Kill Your Economy

1. Spending your entire treasury on the army on day one. Upkeep is daily; without cash reserves you go negative before your first war even starts.
2. Ignoring morale in distant provinces. A province below 30% morale is ballast that eats food and pays nothing.
3. Tolerating a category deficit for weeks. −15 morale nationwide means thousands of tax money lost every single day.
4. Skipping harbors in coastal oil provinces. +25% oil output is the difference between running tanks and stranded ones.
5. Storming Bergen without a covering fleet. Your landing force will take the island — and the first enemy cruiser will cut it off from supply.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many resources are there in Frontkrieg?

Seven provincial resources — grain, fish, iron, lumber, coal, oil, gas — plus money as the national resource. Resources are grouped into three categories: food, materials, and energy. Shortages are counted per category, so resources within a category substitute for each other.

How do I make money fast at the start of a match?

Your starting treasury is 50,000. In the first days, keep your capital region's morale at maximum, do not expand beyond 2–3 hops from the capital, and build a harbor in your richest coastal province. Taxes from high-morale provinces provide steadier income than early conquests.

What does Bergen Island give and how do I capture it?

Bergen is a neutral island with tenfold oil and money output. It is reachable only by amphibious landing, so you need transports and a covering battle fleet. Control of the island is reported daily in the in-game newspaper, so be ready to defend it against every neighbor.

What happens if I run out of oil?

While your entire energy category (coal, oil, gas) is negative, your nation takes −15 morale in all provinces, which cuts directly into taxes. Units with oil upkeep — tanks, aircraft, navy — are left without fuel, so combat effectiveness collapses exactly when you need it most.

Conclusion

The Frontkrieg economy is a closed loop: resources sustain morale, morale multiplies taxes, taxes pay for the army, and the army captures new resources. Whoever breaks this loop through deficits or overexpansion loses before the decisive battle is ever fought. The real World War 1 proved the same point: petroleum became the strategic resource that decided the war of engines.

Put these principles to the test: a new match starts every day, with up to 500 players and 70 AI nations on a map of 4,800 provinces. Start your match right now — free, in your browser, no pay-to-win.