Taiwanese company Mizo Games has launched a new board game which allows players to take on roles from military commanders and undercover operatives to civilian resistance fighters battling a fictional Chinese invasion.

The game, named “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 Reuters news agency in December, Chang Shao Lian, founder of Mizo Games said: “I want players to feel 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 increasing military activities near the island and a mounting effort by civil defence groups to prepare for any potential invasion.

So how does the game work and could it be used to prepare for war?

What is 2045 all about?

The board game simulates a Chinese invasion of Taiwan 20 years in the future and players role-play characters over the 10 days leading up to an attack.

Rather than focusing solely on the defence of Taiwan, players are evaluated on how effectively they achieve their character’s specific goals.

“There are two types of victories, individual victory and the victory of Taiwan. The two outcomes pose a huge conflict of values for the players. I don’t want players to play the game with just the mindset to learn but I want them to play the game with the desire to participate in and win this war on the table,” Shao Lian told Reuters.

Players in 2045 can participate in different aspects of modern warfare, including cyberwarfare, economic meltdown and civil upheaval.

The creation of “2045” has encountered several challenges, notably concerns about censorship and production limitations.

The game’s controversial subject prevents its manufacture in China, a departure from the usual production practices of Taiwanese board game companies.

Has Mizo Games produced other warfare-themed board games?

Yes, Mizo launched its first warfare-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 aerial assault on Kaohsiung (then known as Takao) in November 1944. 

What is driving the popularity of military games?

Games with social and political themes are not new, according to Paul Booth, professor of media and pop culture  at 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 as 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, we can feel invested. We can feel involved.

“The power of a game like this is to allow players to feel connected, like participatory, connected to this alternate history.”

2045 is part of a longstanding enthusiasm for “gamifying” important social issues, Booth said.

Boardgames which tap into social commentary go back more than a century. “The Landlord’s Game”, created in 1902 by Elizabeth Magie, was crafted to teach players the negative effects of land consolidation under private monopolistic control and land seizure.

In 1935, the game was adapted and commercialised by Charles Darrow and Parker Brothers, who modified its rules and themes to emphasise competition and wealth accumulation, and became known as Monopoly.

War is another such issue which has prompted the production of games both for military preparation for conflict and among civilians.

“War is a significant topic going back centuries. War games where generals would put out troops on a gigantic table and plot out military actions. That is a very common kind of board game antecedent,” explained Booth.

“The kind of war gaming culture is actually still going very strong, and we see it in things like Warhammer [released in 1983], or miniature 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 TV fictional drama series, portrays a potential Chinese invasion. The show 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).

Following the Chinese Civil War, Chiang Kai-shek relocated the Republic of China (ROC) government 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 over Chinese sovereignty.

China continues to view Taiwan as part of its own territory.

In his 2025 New Year address on China’s state TV channel CCTV on Wednesday, China’s President Xi Jinping stated: “The people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family. No one can sever our family bonds, and no one can stop the historical trend of national reunification.”

However, Taiwan is opposed to any kind of “reunification” and regards increasingly frequent Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait as “provocative”.

What military drills has China carried out close to Taiwan?

In August 2022, China launched missiles over Taiwan in response to a visit by then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan. It described this as a “military exercise”.

Under its “one China policy”, the US does not formally recognise Taiwan’s independence from China. However, it does support its membership of international organisations 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 the island maintains an adequate capacity for self-defence.

At the time of Pelosi’s visit to the island, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) denounced China’s military exercise, deeming 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. The military exercises around Taiwan involved 111 aircraft, 46 naval vessels and operations including sea assaults, land strikes, air defence drills and anti-submarine activities.

In October 2024, China said the Eastern Theatre Command of the PLA launched new military drills off the coast of Taiwan as “punishment” for a speech given by Taiwan’s president Lai, in which he vowed to “resist annexation” or “encroachment upon our sovereignty”. Taiwan said it had detected 34 naval vessels and 125 aircraft around the island.

More recently – on December 9 – Taiwan put its military on “high alert“, launching combat readiness drills and an emergency centre “factoring in enemy threats”, following the sighting of nearly 90 Chinese navy and coastguard ships in waters near Taiwan, the southern 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 ran its first-ever “tabletop” war-game exercises for military and government officials simulating a military escalation with China to test the government’s response readiness and to assess the effectiveness of various government agencies in maintaining societal stability and continuity during times of crisis.

According to a statement by Taiwanese government officials, the war game simulation exercise was conducted within the Presidential Office in Taipei, with Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim and National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu at the helm.

Several government agencies, both at central and local levels, along with various civil defence organisations, took part in the three-hour exercise, according to sources who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the event.