Unit Repair in Frontkrieg: How Damaged Armies Heal

A damaged army in Frontkrieg heals on its own — but only up to the ceiling set by the morale of the province it is standing in. Every in-game hour your units pull their health pool toward "province morale × maximum HP": upward at 40% of the gap per hour, downward at 10%. Mechanical units (tanks, artillery, ships, aircraft) get a second channel: they are repaired in your own province with a workshop or a factory, at 5% to 30% of the full pool per in-game hour. Infantry and cavalry receive no such repair — morale is their only medicine. And if your treasury runs out of an upkeep resource, the army loses 10% of its pool every hour and starts physically melting away.

This guide is for players who have already fought their first battle and watched the army come home with half a health bar. Here are all three mechanics, in numbers.

In short: five facts about recovery

• The health target equals province morale. An army in a 100-morale province recovers to 100% of its pool; in a freshly captured one (morale 25) it decays to 25%.
• Health climbs four times faster than it falls: 40% of the gap per in-game hour versus 10%.
• Workshop repair is 5% (level 1) and 10% (level 2) of the full pool per hour; factory repair is 15%, 20% and 30% from level 3 up.
• Repair works only on your own territory and only for vehicles. A tank parked on allied soil does not get fixed.
• An upkeep shortage costs −10% of the pool per hour, −10 unit morale, and real units removed from the stack.

What the health pool is

Frontkrieg tracks health as a shared stack pool rather than per unit. Ten tanks at 140 HP each are 1,400 HP for the whole stack. When the pool drops to 700 you do not lose five tanks — you have ten wounded tanks that hit softer.

Base health depends on the type: infantry 20 HP, cavalry 30, armoured car 45, artillery 20, tank 140, heavy tank 200, railgun 100, fighter 40, bomber 180, light cruiser 100, battleship 250, submarine 120.

Half a pool does not mean half the strength. The health factor in the combat damage formula falls linearly from 1.0 to a floor of 0.5, so even a nearly destroyed stack still deals 50% of nominal damage. That is what makes comebacks possible — and what makes finishing off wounded armies so profitable.

Morale drift: the main mechanic

Every unit has a target health level equal to the morale of the province beneath it. A stack in a province at 90 morale targets 90% of its pool; a stack in a freshly captured province at 25 morale targets 25%.

The movement is asymmetric:

• Recovery — 40% of the gap per in-game hour. An army at 40% of its pool sitting in a 100-morale province closes roughly 78% of the distance to full within the first three hours.
• Decay — 10% of the gap per in-game hour. That is why an army pushed onto enemy soil wastes away slowly but relentlessly.

The practical takeaway: province morale is the ceiling on your army's health. If your rear provinces sit at 70–80 morale, your troops physically cannot recover above that line. Economy and morale first, repair second. The province morale guide covers how to raise it.

Vehicle repair: workshop and factory

Mechanical units get a second, far faster recovery channel. The conditions are strict, and all three must hold at once:

1. The unit is mechanical — every vehicle: armoured cars, artillery, tanks, heavy tanks, railguns, aircraft, ships. Infantry and cavalry do not qualify.
2. The province belongs to you. Not to an ally, not to a neutral — to you.
3. The province has a workshop or a factory.

Repair rates per in-game hour:

• workshop level 1 — 5% of the full pool;
• workshop level 2 — 10%;
• factory level 1 — 15%;
• factory level 2 — 20%;
• factory levels 3 and 4 — 30%.

If a province has both a workshop and a factory, the best rate applies — they do not stack. A level 3 factory brings a shattered tank stack from zero back to a full pool in roughly 3–4 in-game hours, which is the difference between "the army is out for a day" and "the army is back in line before the next push". Costs and build times for these buildings are in the construction guide.

Attrition: when the army melts without a shot fired

Every unit consumes upkeep each hour: infantry 1 coin plus grain, a tank 7 coins and 2 oil, a battleship 15 coins, 4 oil and 4 coal. When the required resource is missing from the stockpile, attrition kicks in:

• the health pool drops by 10% of its maximum per in-game hour;
• unit morale takes an immediate −10;
• the unit count in the stack is recalculated from the remaining health, so vehicles genuinely disappear rather than merely "feeling unwell".

Oil and coal shortages hit the most expensive assets: tanks, battleships, bombers. A force of ten heavy tanks without oil burns through its entire pool in about ten in-game hours. Stockpile control is therefore a combat task, not bookkeeping; the economy guide explains how to avoid draining reserves.

Building repair: 2% per hour

Buildings have health too, and they also rebuild themselves — far more slowly, at 2% of the level's health per in-game hour, so a full restoration takes around 50 in-game hours.

Durability depends on the type: fortress 400 HP per level, factory 300, harbour and railway 250 each, aerodrome 200, barracks and workshop 150 each, recruiting office 100.

One condition matters most: only what stands in a province you own gets rebuilt. Wrecked infrastructure on neutral ground stays a ruin until somebody takes ownership of the province. That is exactly why the bomber (8 damage against buildings) and the railgun (15) are tools for shutting down enemy production rather than for killing armies.

Four rules that save armies

1. Keep a factory in a front-line province. Not deep in the rear: 30% repair per hour only helps where the battered vehicles actually are.
2. Never park damaged vehicles on freshly captured ground. Morale 25 means the stack decays toward 25% of its pool instead of healing. Pull it one step back into your own high-morale province.
3. Infantry is not repaired — it is raised by morale. A fortress gives +5 morale per level, harbour and railway +7 each, a factory +2.5 per level. That is the infantry hospital.
4. Check your oil balance before an offensive. A campaign that starts in deficit kills your vehicles faster than the enemy does.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take for an army to heal in Frontkrieg?

Through morale, 40% of the gap per in-game hour: a half-health stack in a 100-morale province is nearly full again after 4–5 in-game hours. Through a level 3 factory, 30% of the full pool per hour — from zero to maximum in roughly 3–4 hours.

Do units heal on allied territory?

Vehicle repair, no: workshops and factories only restore units belonging to the province owner. Morale drift, however, works everywhere, so on a high-morale allied province your army will still creep back up toward that level.

Why is my army losing health when it is not fighting?

Two reasons. First, it is standing in a province whose morale is lower than its current health, so the pool sheds 10% of the gap per hour. Second, an upkeep shortage — that is a straight −10% of the maximum pool every hour plus genuine unit losses.

Is infantry repaired in a workshop?

No. Workshops and factories serve mechanical units only. Infantry and cavalry recover exclusively through the morale of the province they occupy.

Conclusion

Recovery in Frontkrieg is not a "heal" button — it is a consequence of where your army stands and whether you can pay its upkeep. Province morale sets the health ceiling, workshops and factories give vehicles a fast repair channel of 5% to 30% per hour, and an oil or grain shortage destroys an army with no battle at all. In the real First World War, offensives died out for the same reason — logistics and attrition rather than a lack of courage — and Frontkrieg reproduces that logic almost literally.

Make it a habit to pull battered vehicles back to your own factory after every battle instead of leaving them on captured soil, and your army will survive three campaigns instead of one. Frontkrieg is free with no pay-to-win, a new match starts every day: pick a game in the lobby or read more mechanics breakdowns on the blog.