College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties14 empires153 battles2 raidsFinal · Jan 3
The 1998 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 1998 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

14 landholders · final

  1. 1Tennessee991,061 mi² · 1,018 co
  2. 2Texas889,566 mi² · 347 co
  3. 3Ohio State633,980 mi² · 673 co
  4. 4Miami535,060 mi² · 352 co
  5. 5Purdue136,868 mi² · 232 co
  6. 6Idaho88,671 mi² · 25 co
  7. 7Air Force87,052 mi² · 82 co
  8. 8Florida68,518 mi² · 92 co
  9. 9Missouri59,876 mi² · 118 co
  10. 10Western Michigan43,507 mi² · 88 co
  11. 11TCU43,478 mi² · 55 co
  12. 12Tulane14,264 mi² · 30 co

1997 season1999 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 1998 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.