Grey Current

Wednesday, 14 October 2026. Taipei.

China's coast guard has begun "inspecting" Taiwan-bound ships. A Taiwan-flagged freighter has been boarded near Kinmen, a dashcam clip of "tanks in Taoyuan" is racing across social media, and two LNG carriers have slowed to a crawl. Washington wants an answer by Thursday evening:

Is this a coercive squeeze, the start of a blockade — or cover for an invasion?

You are an intelligence officer at Taipei Station. In two in-game days you collect, verify and judge — and every game secretly picks one of the three truths, so there's no answer to memorize. You have to argue from the evidence.

What you do

Run human sources. A night-shift ferry dispatcher, a retired harbor engineer, a ship's master, a TSMC engineer. Build rapport, ask open questions, and don't burn anyone. A leading question gets you the answer you wanted, not the truth.

Watch your back. Someone photographed you with your source. Run a detection route and check behind you before your next meeting, or lead him straight to her.

Verify before it spreads. Viral clips, screenshots and voice notes, each with checks that cost time: freeze the frame, search the scene, call the police and the defense ministry.

Read the imagery (GEOINT)— what moved at the ferry terminals overnight?

Find who went dark (MASINT) — compare coastal radar with what ships say about themselves on AIS.

Sort what you know: what you saw, what you heard, what's on the record, and what's only context.

Make the call. Write down your hunch on the first night. On day two, brief the President over a secure video link — your judgment, your confidence, and what would change your mind. The debrief shows whether the evidence moved you, or you moved the evidence.

Built for teaching. Grey Current was designed for intelligence and security studies courses: collection, tradecraft, verification, and analytic judgment under uncertainty. The scenario draws on Taiwan FactCheck Center cases, Taiwan's National Security Bureau reporting on cognitive warfare, published research on invasion indicators, and declassified CIA and FRUS archives.

Controls: WASD to move, or click to walk · Shift to walk fast · F to check behind you · E to talk · J for your notebook.

Best played on a laptop or desktop in Chrome or Edge. The game is large (about 170 MB), so the first load takes a minute or two. Not built for phones.