The Battle Of Hastings - 1066

In class, we started the subject of the medieval times. We started of with the Battle of Hastings back in 1066 which took place in England. The battle was between Harold Godwinson, successor of King Edward, and Duke William of Normandy. It was brutal and cruel, though in the end, William won the war and he claim the throne of England.

The game:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/normans/launch_gms_battle_hastings.shtml

Briefly, the game consist William's point of view and Harold's point of view during the Battle of Hastings. It's quite a simple, and straight-forward game - nothing too complicated. It somewhat tells perfectly of the plans and the main plots of the battle.
What I enjoyed most about the game is that it contains both point of views during the battle, and it wasn't too complicated to understand. Therefore, it was straight-forward and easily understandable.
Whilst playing the game, I learned that Harold was already weak before the battle even started, due to the battle of Stamford Bridge up north with Harald Hardrada. It was dreadful for Harold, and there was no chance he could have won that war against Duke William.
A lot of events happened during the Battle of Hastings. Before the war even started, Harold was in lack of soldiers due to the war against Hardrada up north. Therefore he grabbed peasants to become, though untrained, soldiers to fight beside him. The Brits had a strong shield wall (Housecarls) to protect themselves from the cavalry and the archers of the Normans. Although, the Normans had a strategy of the 'hit-and-run' and pretending if William has fallen, then attacking the Brits out of balance. There was a lot of strategies used in the war. After a nine hour battle, England fell into William's hands.
I think that this type of simulation game is a valuable learning experience because it helps us understand more about what really happened during the battle, and how it went. It also gives us an image of what it basically somewhat looked like.
As much as I had hoped that Harold was to be king of England, apparently William gained a perfect reasoning why he deserved to conquer England (for he won the Battle of Hastings) Harold Godwinson tried his best, but was still defeated by Duke William. England was a rich country, no wonder people fought through wars for the land. It was precious, and worth the taking. Moreover, lucky for Duke William to have had England in his hands.