College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties29 empires152 battles14 raidsFinal · Dec 31
The 1936 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 1936 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

29 landholders · final

  1. 1Notre Dame938,377 mi² · 436 co
  2. 2Utah State594,211 mi² · 248 co
  3. 3Georgia Tech254,841 mi² · 173 co
  4. 4Pittsburgh183,561 mi² · 154 co
  5. 5TCU174,194 mi² · 188 co
  6. 6Alabama173,540 mi² · 297 co
  7. 7Tennessee173,120 mi² · 328 co
  8. 8Duquesne160,426 mi² · 229 co
  9. 9Missouri149,466 mi² · 136 co
  10. 10New York University103,285 mi² · 84 co
  11. 11Santa Clara86,614 mi² · 143 co
  12. 12New Mexico86,362 mi² · 22 co

1935 season1937 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 1936 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.