College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties15 empires163 battles2 raidsFinal · Jan 3
The 1999 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 1999 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

15 landholders · final

  1. 1Florida State1,088,813 mi² · 663 co
  2. 2Oregon611,533 mi² · 570 co
  3. 3LSU542,683 mi² · 439 co
  4. 4Wisconsin353,294 mi² · 302 co
  5. 5Penn State214,019 mi² · 314 co
  6. 6TCU202,749 mi² · 110 co
  7. 7Nebraska190,436 mi² · 151 co
  8. 8Michigan156,818 mi² · 256 co
  9. 9San Diego State73,479 mi² · 51 co
  10. 10USC54,534 mi² · 86 co
  11. 11Boise State42,213 mi² · 22 co
  12. 12Illinois28,185 mi² · 72 co

1998 season2000 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 1999 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.