College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties21 empires128 battles6 raidsFinal · Jan 1
The 1938 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 1938 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

21 landholders · final

  1. 1Minnesota1,131,318 mi² · 567 co
  2. 2Saint Mary's (CA)502,466 mi² · 289 co
  3. 3Tennessee423,735 mi² · 743 co
  4. 4Oregon State355,418 mi² · 240 co
  5. 5USC295,998 mi² · 356 co
  6. 6TCU189,274 mi² · 269 co
  7. 7Idaho161,359 mi² · 56 co
  8. 8Portland83,352 mi² · 22 co
  9. 9San José State79,634 mi² · 9 co
  10. 10Cornell63,791 mi² · 62 co
  11. 11Stetson61,446 mi² · 79 co
  12. 12Alabama52,810 mi² · 95 co

1937 season1939 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 1938 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.