College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties9 empires39 battles1 raidsFinal · Nov 26
The 1897 CFB Imperialism map
Surveying the counties…

Every county starts with the nearest FBS stadium. Win, and you take everything the loser holds. Lose it all, and the only way back is beating somebody who still owns dirt. This is the 1897 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Week 12

Standings

The Empires

9 landholders · final

  1. 1Iowa State2,029,449 mi² · 840 co
  2. 2Purdue752,066 mi² · 765 co
  3. 3Pennsylvania302,904 mi² · 492 co
  4. 4Chicago206,420 mi² · 397 co
  5. 5Carlisle110,534 mi² · 297 co
  6. 6Wisconsin Alumni97,106 mi² · 148 co
  7. 7Yale74,420 mi² · 145 co
  8. 8Iowa30,468 mi² · 56 co
  9. 9Holy Cross2,094 mi² · 2 co

1896 season1898 season ›All-time records ›

Articles of war

How the war works

I

The seeding

Before a down is played, every county in the fifty states is dealt to the FBS program with the nearest stadium, measured as the crow flies from the county's geographic center. Nobody starts landless in the FBS; nobody outside it starts with anything.

II

The conquest

When a game goes final, the winner takes everything the loser holds at that moment: home soil and every prior conquest alike. Games are replayed in kickoff order, so an empire can rise and fall inside a single Saturday.

III

The raid

A team with no land has nothing to lose, but it can beat any landholder and take the lot. That is how FCS, Division II and Division III programs raid their way onto the map, and land taken downward can stay there all season.

Ties, unfinished games and games without a score are ignored. Territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands) are off the map. Neutral-site games overseas do not yet award foreign soil. A week appears in the timeline once its first game goes final. The current map is refreshed automatically every morning during the season. The 1897 campaign is complete. Stadium coordinates, colors and logos are today's; conference and division come from each season's own results. The full rules and methodology have the details.