Round 1
Withheld from the archive
This round was played, but we do not republish it here. Recent events involving mass civilian casualties are excluded from our public archive under our content policy, whatever their place in the day’s puzzle.
Terra Tempus Daily #113 — September 21, 2026
These are the 5 rounds every player got on September 21, 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 Myriokephalon
Battle of Myriokephalon · 1176 · Medieval
Why there: The battle unfolded in a narrow Anatolian mountain pass on the route toward Konya, the inland Seljuk capital, because Byzantine armies bent on reconquering the highland interior had to funnel through such defiles where terrain neutralized their numbers and invited ambush.
Why then: By 1176 the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum had consolidated its grip on the Anatolian plateau since Manzikert (1071), while Emperor Manuel I Komnenos, at the height of his ambitions and resources, gambled on a decisive campaign before Turkish power grew unshakable.
- This was a defeat of a Byzantine emperor by a Seljuk sultan.
- Often compared to Manzikert, it ended Byzantine ambitions to retake the Anatolian interior.
- It was fought at a mountain pass in southwestern Anatolia, in modern Turkey.
Round 3
Battle of the Maureaco Fields
Battle of the Maureaco Fields · 451 · Antiquity
- The Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (451 CE) pitted the Roman general Aetius and his Visigothic allies against Attila the Hun.
- The Visigothic king Theodoric I was killed during the battle.
- The clash halted Attila's westward advance into Gaul.
Round 4
Battle of Novara
Battle of Novara · 1849 · 19th Century
Why there: Novara sits on the Piedmontese plains of Lombardy just west of the Ticino River, the contested frontier where Austria's northern Italian possessions met the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont, making it the natural collision point for armies invading across the border.
Why then: The revolutionary wave of 1848–49 had emboldened Italian nationalists to resume war against Austrian dominance, but Habsburg forces under the veteran Radetzky remained better organized, so the Risorgimento's second attempt failed until unification became possible only a decade later with French backing.
- The Battle of Novara (1849) ended the First Italian War of Independence.
- Marshal Radetzky's Austrian army defeated Sardinia-Piedmont, prompting King Charles Albert to abdicate in favor of Victor Emmanuel II.
- The defeat ended the first phase of the Italian unification struggle.
Round 5
Battle of Fontenoy
Battle of Fontenoy · 1745 · Early Modern
Why there: Fontenoy lay on the invasion route into the Austrian Netherlands, a strategically vital, densely fortified crossroads whose control opened the road to the wealthy Low Countries that great powers had long contested.
Why then: The War of the Austrian Succession pitted France against Britain, Austria, and their allies over the Habsburg inheritance, and the linear tactics of drilled musket-and-cannon armies made such head-on infantry clashes the defining battles of the era.
- The Battle of Fontenoy (1745) was a French victory in the War of the Austrian Succession.
- Marshal Saxe, gravely ill, directed the French army while King Louis XV watched from the field near Tournai in present-day Belgium.
- It is famed for the apocryphal invitation, 'Gentlemen of the French Guard, fire first.'
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.