Round 1
Withheld from the archive
This round was played, but the event belongs to one of our paid content modules, so we do not republish it on the free archive. It is still available in the app to anyone who owns that module.
Terra Tempus Daily #20 — June 20, 2026
These are the 5 rounds every player got on June 20, 2026, with the answers and the history behind them. This day is finished, so nothing here spoils a puzzle you can still play — today’s Daily Challenge is a different five events.
Not enough completed runs on this day to report an average without singling out an individual player’s score — we publish one from 5 finishers up.
Round 2
Battle of Rocroi
Battle of Rocroi · 1643 · Early Modern
Why there: Rocroi sat on France's vulnerable northeastern frontier along the Ardennes, guarding an invasion corridor from the Spanish Netherlands, so a Spanish army striking toward Paris had to be intercepted at this fortified border town.
Why then: By 1643 the rigid Spanish tercio squares had fallen behind newer flexible linear tactics and better-coordinated artillery, while Spain, exhausted by the Thirty Years' War and internal revolts, could no longer sustain the dominance it had held for over a century.
- The roughly 21-year-old French commander (later renowned as a great general) led the victory in 1643.
- It broke the legend of the Spanish tercios.
- The battle signaled Spain's decline as the leading European power.
Round 3
Battle of Ain Jalut
Battle of Ain Jalut · 1260 · Medieval
Why there: The spring of Ain Jalut in the hills of Galilee lay on the natural land corridor between Mongol-held Syria and Mamluk Egypt, making it the frontier where the Nile-based sultanate had to make its stand before the invaders reached the Nile valley.
Why then: The moment came when the death of the Great Khan Möngke had drawn the main Mongol army eastward, leaving only a reduced force in Syria just as the newly consolidated Mamluk state—slave-soldiers hardened into disciplined cavalry—was strong enough to strike back.
- The Battle of Ain Jalut (1260) saw the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt defeat the Mongol Ilkhanate, the first major check to Mongol expansion.
- The Mamluk commander Baibars used feigned retreat tactics and soon seized the sultanate himself.
- The site's name means 'Spring of Goliath' in Arabic.
Round 4
Battle of Alma
Battle of Alma · 1854 · 19th Century
Why there: The Alma River's bluffs stood on the direct route inland from the allied landing beaches toward Sevastopol, Russia's great Black Sea naval fortress in the Crimea, so the Russians dug in on the last natural high ground shielding that prize.
Why then: The 1850s decline of the Ottoman Empire drew Britain and France to check Russian expansion toward Constantinople and the Mediterranean, while steamships and railways for the first time let Western powers land and supply large armies on a distant Black Sea coast.
- This was the Battle of the Alma in September 1854, the first major engagement of the Crimean War.
- British and French forces drove Russian troops from the heights guarding the road to Sevastopol.
- Coordinates place it near the Alma River on the Crimean Peninsula.
Round 5
Withheld from the archive
This round was played, but the event belongs to one of our paid content modules, so we do not republish it on the free archive. It is still available in the app to anyone who owns that module.
Every Daily Challenge is five real events, one from each of five different eras, identical for every player, scored up to 10,000 points a round on how close you land in space and in time. Read how to play, see where the events come from, or play today’s.