College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties12 empires148 battles3 raidsFinal · Jan 1
The 1986 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 1986 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

12 landholders · final

  1. 1California1,227,438 mi² · 380 co
  2. 2Penn State753,336 mi² · 928 co
  3. 3Oklahoma600,341 mi² · 686 co
  4. 4Clemson486,293 mi² · 217 co
  5. 5Tennessee162,844 mi² · 335 co
  6. 6Iowa105,987 mi² · 175 co
  7. 7San José State72,321 mi² · 36 co
  8. 8Arizona66,031 mi² · 153 co
  9. 9Arizona State59,280 mi² · 142 co
  10. 10Ohio27,988 mi² · 42 co
  11. 11Angelo StateD-II25,030 mi² · 6 co
  12. 12Boston College18,572 mi² · 42 co

1985 season1987 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 1986 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.