Taiwanese company Mizo Games has launched a new board game that lets players take on roles ranging from military commanders and covert operatives to civilian resistance fighters fighting a fictional Chinese invasion.
The game, called “2045,” will be released in Taiwan this month. It will also be released later in January in English in Europe and the United States.
In August 2024, Mizo Games launched a crowdfunding campaign raising more than 4 million New Taiwan Dollars ($121,707 USD) within two and a half months.
In an interview with the Reuters news agency in December, Chang Shao Lian, the founder of Mizo Games said: “I want players to feel that they want to win and think about what they will do to win.”
The game is being released amid rising tensions between China and Taiwan, with China ramping up military activities near the island and a growing effort by civil defense groups to prepare for any possible invasion.
So how does the game work and can it be used to prepare for war?
What is 2045 about?
The board game simulates a Chinese invasion of Taiwan 20 years in the future, and player characters role-play over the 10 days leading up to an attack.
Instead of focusing solely on defending Taiwan, players are judged on how effectively they achieve their character’s specific goals.
“There are two types of victory, individual victory and Taiwan victory. Both outcomes present a major value conflict for players. I don’t want players to play the game only with the mindset of learning, but I want them to play the game with the desire to participate and win this tabletop war,” Shao Lian told Reuters.
Players in 2045 can participate in various aspects of modern warfare, including cyber warfare, economic meltdown, and civil unrest.
The making of “2045” has encountered several challenges, particularly concerns about censorship and production restrictions.
The game’s controversial subject matter prevents its production in China, a departure from the usual manufacturing practices of Taiwanese board game companies.
Has Mizo Games produced any other fighting themed board games?
Yes, Mizo launched its first war-themed game, Raid on Taihoku, in 2017. Set in Taiwan during World War II, players must survive the bombing of their city. The game is based on the US air raid on Kaohsiung (then known as Takao) in November 1944.
What drives the popularity of military games?
Games with social and political themes are not new, according to Paul Booth, professor of media and pop culture in the College of Communication at DePaul University in Chicago, and author of Board Games as Media, who spoke to Al Jazeera.
“A game like 2045 is important because it allows us to imagine and play with the possibilities of what could happen. In a way that, like a TV show or a movie, we can watch it, feel invested. We can feel included.
“The power of a game like this is to allow players to feel connected, as participants, connected to this alternate history.”
2045 is part of a long-standing enthusiasm for “gamification” of important social issues, Booth said.
Board games that touch on social commentary date back more than a century. The Landlord’s Game, created in 1902 by Elizabeth Magie, was designed to teach players the negative effects of land consolidation under private monopolistic control and land confiscation.
In 1935, the game was adapted and commercialized by Charles Darrow and Parker Brothers, who modified its rules and themes to emphasize competition and wealth accumulation, and became known as Monopoly.
War is another such issue that has fueled the production of games for both military and civilian conflict preparation.
“War is an important subject that dates back centuries. War games where generals would place troops on a giant table and plot military actions. This is kind of a very common ancestor of the board game,” Booth explained.
“The kind of wargaming culture is actually still very strong and we see it in things like Warhammer (released in 1983) or miniatures tabletop games.”
It’s not just board games that are capturing the imagination of Taiwanese media companies when it comes to the idea of a Chinese invasion.
Zero Day, a 10-episode fictional drama television series, portrays a potential Chinese invasion. The play depicts a scenario in which the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the military force of the People’s Republic of China, attacks the island, a possibility that has cast a shadow over Taiwan for generations.
The show is scheduled to be released this year in Taiwan.
Why are tensions rising between Taiwan and China?
The roots of the China-Taiwan conflict can be traced back to the Chinese Civil War, which raged from 1945 to 1949. This conflict culminated in the victory of Mao Zedong’s Communist Party over Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Party, also known as the Kuomintang (KMT).
After the Chinese Civil War, Chiang Kai-shek moved the government of the Republic of China (ROC) to Taiwan, while Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the mainland. Each regime asserted its authority as the sole legitimate government of the entire Chinese nation, leading to decades of political tension and competing claims to Chinese sovereignty.
China continues to see Taiwan as part of its territory.
In his 2025 New Year speech on China’s state television channel CCTV on Wednesday, China’s President Xi Jinping said: “The people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family. No one can break our family ties and no one can stop the historical trend of national reunification.”
However, Taiwan is opposed to any kind of “reunification” and considers increasingly frequent Chinese military exercises in the Taiwan Strait as “provocative”.
What military exercises has China conducted near Taiwan?
In August 2022, China fired missiles over Taiwan in response to a visit by then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan. He described it as a “military exercise”.
According to its “one China policy”, the US does not officially recognize Taiwan’s independence from China. However, it supports its membership in international organizations such as the World Trade Organization. Furthermore, under the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) of 1979, the US is committed to supplying Taiwan with essential military equipment and support services to ensure that the island maintains an adequate capacity for self-defense.
At the time of Pelosi’s visit to the island, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) denounced China’s military exercise, considering it a serious threat to national security and a dangerous escalation of regional tensions.
In May 2024, China conducted large-scale military exercises, codenamed “Joint Sword-2024”, during Taiwan President William Lai Ching-te’s first week in office. Military exercises around Taiwan included 111 aircraft, 46 naval vessels and operations including sea attacks, land attacks, air defense exercises and anti-submarine activities.
In October 2024, China said the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command launched new military exercises off the coast of Taiwan as “punishment” for a speech by Taiwan’s President Lai in which he vowed to “resist annexation” or ” violation of our sovereignty”. “. Taiwan said it had detected 34 naval vessels and 125 aircraft around the island.
Most recently – on December 9 – Taiwan put its military on “high alert”, launching combat readiness drills and an emergency center “factoring in enemy threats”, following the sighting of nearly 90 Chinese navy and coast guard ships in the waters off Taiwan, to the south. The Japanese Islands and the East and South China Seas.
Two days later, the Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense said it had tracked 53 military aircraft, 11 navy ships and eight civilian vessels near the island in the previous 24 hours.
Is Taiwan’s military using games to prepare for war?
In December, Taiwan’s Presidential Office held its first “tabletop” war-gaming exercises for military and government officials simulating a military escalation with China to test the government’s response readiness and assess the effectiveness of various government agencies. in maintaining social stability and continuity. in times of crisis.
According to a statement from Taiwanese government officials, the war game simulation exercise was conducted inside the Presidential Office in Taipei, with Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim and National Security Council Secretary General Joseph Wu in charge.
Several central and local government agencies, along with various civil defense organizations, took part in the three-hour exercise, according to sources who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the event.
