College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties18 empires145 battles2 raidsFinal · Dec 31
The 1956 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 1956 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

18 landholders · final

  1. 1Iowa1,108,014 mi² · 486 co
  2. 2Texas A&M343,574 mi² · 423 co
  3. 3Baylor332,711 mi² · 653 co
  4. 4Wyoming310,520 mi² · 116 co
  5. 5North TexasD-II272,602 mi² · 132 co
  6. 6Michigan262,860 mi² · 187 co
  7. 7USC202,939 mi² · 252 co
  8. 8Georgia Tech177,761 mi² · 307 co
  9. 9George Washington162,986 mi² · 31 co
  10. 10TCU144,352 mi² · 230 co
  11. 11Houston74,214 mi² · 52 co
  12. 12Yale59,303 mi² · 52 co

1955 season1957 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 1956 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.