College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties24 empires138 battles12 raidsFinal · Dec 31
The 1939 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 1939 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

24 landholders · final

  1. 1Duquesne957,876 mi² · 257 co
  2. 2Georgia Tech638,878 mi² · 795 co
  3. 3USC244,513 mi² · 254 co
  4. 4Fresno StateD-II240,160 mi² · 120 co
  5. 5Colorado216,315 mi² · 66 co
  6. 6Texas A&M210,174 mi² · 322 co
  7. 7Cornell176,214 mi² · 216 co
  8. 8UCLA98,891 mi² · 22 co
  9. 9Michigan96,793 mi² · 181 co
  10. 10Iowa96,775 mi² · 228 co
  11. 11Hardin Simmons79,634 mi² · 9 co
  12. 12New Mexico73,707 mi² · 38 co

1938 season1940 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 1939 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.