College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties19 empires152 battles4 raidsFinal · Jan 1
The 1959 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 1959 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

19 landholders · final

  1. 1Syracuse1,325,217 mi² · 510 co
  2. 2Clemson561,244 mi² · 702 co
  3. 3Washington366,844 mi² · 150 co
  4. 4Illinois278,412 mi² · 324 co
  5. 5Ole Miss225,233 mi² · 342 co
  6. 6Oklahoma180,712 mi² · 175 co
  7. 7Georgia146,775 mi² · 290 co
  8. 8North Dakota134,958 mi² · 51 co
  9. 9Florida124,728 mi² · 247 co
  10. 10Wichita State84,365 mi² · 61 co
  11. 11Notre Dame54,127 mi² · 76 co
  12. 12Dartmouth35,033 mi² · 49 co

1958 season1960 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 1959 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.