By Fabian Hamacher and Angie Teo
TAIPEI (Reuters) – A new board game set against the backdrop of the armed conflict over Taiwan is set for release in January 2025, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to take part in an imagined Chinese invasion 20 years from now.
China has stepped up its military activities near democratically ruled Taiwan in recent years, including deploying naval forces around the island this month.
The new game, titled “2045,” tasks players with navigating the turmoil of war by using colorful action cards and role-playing characters involved in operations ten days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
These include members of the Taiwanese armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-Chinese politicians who want to sabotage the island’s defense, as well as citizens who take up arms to defend their homeland.
China claims Taiwan as its own and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. Taiwan’s president and his government strongly reject China’s sovereignty claims and say only the island’s people can decide its future.
Taiwanese board game maker Mizo Games began crowdfunding the game in August. Within two and a half months, the company had received more than T$4 million (US$121,966) to fund the project.
“Currently, things are not entirely peaceful around the island of Taiwan and the Western Pacific,” Chang Shao Lian, the founder of Mizo Games, told Reuters at his office in Taipei.
Chang said he wanted to “make the players feel like they want to win and think about what they’re going to do to win.”
The game, which is also scheduled to go on sale in the United States and Europe later this year, was developed at a time when Taiwanese officials have stepped up preparations for scenarios including a China conflict.
Last week, Taiwan’s presidential office held its first “tabletop exercise,” involving government agencies outside the armed forces, simulating a military escalation with China.
The exercise included scenarios where the island was “on the brink of conflict” to test the preparedness of government agencies and civil society.
Players who took part in a test run of “2045” said they learned what could happen in the event of a Chinese invasion, and they hoped the game could help people understand the effects of war.
“I don’t know much about military matters, so this game taught me where the army can land and launch an attack,” said Kalin Lai, a 23-year-old who tried out the game.
Mizo has previously developed two other Taiwan War-themed board games – one about surviving an air raid in Taipei and the other about a bombing in Kaohsiung during the Japanese colonization of the island between 1895 and 1945. ($1 = 32.7960 Taiwan dollars )
