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 #145 · October 23, 2026
These are the 5 rounds every player got on October 23, 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 Castillon
1453 · Medieval
Why there: Castillon lay in Gascony near Bordeaux, the wine-rich heart of England's centuries-old continental holdings, so the French crown had to break English control here to reclaim the region and its lucrative Aquitaine trade.
Why then: By 1453 France had reorganized into a professional royal army equipped with newly mobile gunpowder artillery, whose massed cannon could shatter the mounted charges that had long defined medieval warfare, giving Charles VII the decisive edge to end the Hundred Years' War.
- The Battle of Castillon (1453) was the final battle of the Hundred Years' War.
- French artillery proved decisive, marking one of the first major battles won primarily by cannon.
- The English defeat ended their territorial ambitions in France, leaving only Calais.
Round 3
Battle of the Milvian Bridge
312 CE · Antiquity
Why there: The Milvian Bridge carried the Via Flaminia across the Tiber into Rome, so whoever held that crossing controlled the approach to the imperial capital, forcing Maxentius to defend it and trapping his routed army against the water.
Why then: Diocletian's Tetrarchy had fractured into rival claimants by the early 4th century, and Constantine's bid to unify the empire coincided with Christianity's spread from a persecuted sect to a force he could co-opt for legitimacy.
- At the Battle of the Milvian Bridge (312 CE), Constantine defeated Maxentius for control of Rome.
- Constantine reportedly saw a Christian symbol and the words 'In this sign, conquer' before the battle.
- Maxentius drowned in the Tiber; Constantine's victory set Christianity on the path to becoming Rome's dominant religion.
Round 4
Battle of Toba-Fushimi
1868 · 19th Century
Why there: The fighting erupted at Toba and Fushimi because they guarded the southern approaches to Kyoto, the imperial capital, making them the choke point the Tokugawa forces had to seize to reach the emperor and reassert control.
Why then: By 1868 the shogunate had been fatally weakened by Western intrusion and unequal treaties, while pro-imperial domains like Satsuma and Choshu had acquired modern rifles and artillery, letting a restored young emperor's coalition challenge and outgun the old warrior regime.
- This was the Battle of Toba-Fushimi, fought in January 1868 near Kyoto, Japan.
- Imperial forces of the Satsuma and Chōshū domains defeated the Tokugawa shogunate's army, opening the Boshin War.
- The victory cemented the Meiji Restoration and the end of samurai shogunal government.
Round 5
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.
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.