With the release of an alternative multiplayer client, GameRanger, Dumptrailer2 has started a thread discussing the possibility of a multiplayer tournament, hoping that others also crave a renaissance of multiplayer action.

Upon attempting to submit new files, veteran submitters will notice that there are two differences from the previous submit process. Firstly, minimaps are now required for all new maps. This is a quick and easy process to do and provides downloaders and administrators the chance to preview your map. If you need help on making a minimap, see this thread. Secondly, a completely new requirement for all new maps is selecting the patch you made the game with, which allows for players to download the maps to know if they will be able to completely enjoy the map without missing any features or experiencing any inter-patch glitches.

A new multiplayer game service has been launched, Game Rangers, which has support for the 2D Stronghold Series. It is very similar to IGZ, but it has a port to Mac OSX as well, bridging across a gap to extend the multiplayer range who play the Mac ports. Naturally, it supports buddy systems and messaging, something removed from Gamespy as they have been ratcheting down.

FAQs, documentation, and download can be found here. You can also discuss the new multiplayer system this thread.

Lord Michael I has submitted another walkthrough to help players subdue an Emir starting off very disadvantaged economically. The full writeup and savegame can be found here. Enjoy the conquest.

Actually today did not exist in the histories of Italy, Portugal, Poland, and Spain in the year 1582 AD due to the adoption of the improved Gregorian Calendar. Neither did the 10 days between October 4^th and the 15^th. This corrected the error of he accumulation of a century's neglect of the the quarter of a day left at the end of the year. It also prevented this error by introducing an extra day every four years, but even this is neglected every 400 years to ensure the integrity of the calendar system.

France and many other Catholic countries adopted the calendar system a little later. The Protestant dominated countries were slower to adopt the improved calendar system, fearing a gradual-resumed control by the Catholic Church and the Pope. Many Orthodox Christian nations continued using various forms of he Julian calendar, most polarized either towards the original or revised to incorporate the new information gained since.

More about the Gregorian Calendar and its history can be found at The Galileo Project and Wolfram with Wikipedia having much information about other calendars easily accessible.