College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties12 empires147 battles3 raidsFinal · Jan 1
The 1988 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 1988 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

12 landholders · final

  1. 1Washington State1,166,220 mi² · 409 co
  2. 2Notre Dame940,544 mi² · 986 co
  3. 3Miami916,223 mi² · 864 co
  4. 4Florida State131,144 mi² · 252 co
  5. 5NC State108,610 mi² · 198 co
  6. 6Southern Miss96,824 mi² · 68 co
  7. 7Tennessee89,839 mi² · 138 co
  8. 8Georgia60,850 mi² · 59 co
  9. 9Toledo45,440 mi² · 63 co
  10. 10Michigan25,298 mi² · 47 co
  11. 11MarshallFCS14,129 mi² · 33 co
  12. 12Northern Illinois10,340 mi² · 25 co

1987 season1989 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 1988 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.