College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties11 empires140 battles5 raidsFinal · Dec 31
The 1985 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 1985 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

11 landholders · final

  1. 1Oklahoma920,413 mi² · 441 co
  2. 2Alabama790,469 mi² · 890 co
  3. 3Georgia Tech761,451 mi² · 691 co
  4. 4Tennessee326,013 mi² · 326 co
  5. 5Texas A&M278,739 mi² · 253 co
  6. 6Fresno State244,213 mi² · 212 co
  7. 7Ohio State123,866 mi² · 152 co
  8. 8Arizona80,641 mi² · 69 co
  9. 9Abilene ChristianD-II51,954 mi² · 44 co
  10. 10MarshallFCS14,129 mi² · 33 co
  11. 11FurmanFCS13,573 mi² · 31 co

1984 season1986 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 1985 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.