College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties14 empires43 battles3 raidsFinal · Dec 2
The 1898 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 1898 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Week 12

Standings

The Empires

14 landholders · final

  1. 1Iowa State1,306,903 mi² · 839 co
  2. 2Minnesota Alumni1,227,160 mi² · 408 co
  3. 3Harvard357,482 mi² · 548 co
  4. 4OberlinD-III223,875 mi² · 379 co
  5. 5Navy198,369 mi² · 371 co
  6. 6Michigan108,930 mi² · 173 co
  7. 7Cincinnati96,267 mi² · 253 co
  8. 8Princeton61,134 mi² · 107 co
  9. 9Purdue Alumni8,897 mi² · 22 co
  10. 10Penn State6,892 mi² · 14 co
  11. 11Pennsylvania6,545 mi² · 14 co
  12. 12New York University2,518 mi² · 12 co

1897 season1899 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 1898 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.