College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties15 empires140 battles2 raidsFinal · Dec 31
The 1989 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 1989 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

15 landholders · final

  1. 1Miami752,561 mi² · 526 co
  2. 2Stanford746,062 mi² · 206 co
  3. 3Notre Dame546,189 mi² · 533 co
  4. 4Florida State388,682 mi² · 408 co
  5. 5Tennessee335,549 mi² · 167 co
  6. 6Houston193,972 mi² · 238 co
  7. 7Auburn148,233 mi² · 261 co
  8. 8Illinois145,919 mi² · 307 co
  9. 9Texas Tech131,256 mi² · 215 co
  10. 10New Mexico86,912 mi² · 26 co
  11. 11USC62,619 mi² · 93 co
  12. 12Clemson34,013 mi² · 90 co

1988 season1990 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 1989 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.