SMG Studio

 I prefer playing fixed card games with 6 players but holy lord, there are so many players that just get control of a continent and then collect cards.

If there's a Mexican standoff between 3-4 players and everyone just sits collecting cards because no one has an advantage.....guess what?  20 turns from now you'll still be collecting cards and no on will have an advantage.  The game will last forever if no one makes a move!

I swear I lose more games because of sheer boredom than skill or bad luck.  I don't know how or why people sit there attacking the same territory over and over to build up troops when their opponents are doing the exact same thing.

Players that sit and build up troops in Australia by attacking, collecting a card and then retreating are the worst.  They end up with a massive amount of troops in that one area.  They won't attack and nobody dares attack them.  What's the point of playing if you're going to do that crap?

There really needs to be a timer on games or rules that set a limit on the number of troops you can have on one territory.

The game is called RISK not CARD COLLECTING.

Jason is right. The new AI from a week or two ago does not attack anyone. So I quit playing because it's so boring.

The AI attacks sometimes but it's totally random.  Sometimes the bot will randomly attack anything near it but there is no strategy behind it and I've seen bots ignore taking away continent bonuses from players a million times when it would have been easy and made sense to do it.  There doesn't seem to be any logic or tactical sense behind the way bots attack at all. 

It also seems bots respond to the biggest number of troops as far as where it puts new troops.  If you're trying to take a continent over early on and a bot has  a few troops there you better get rid of that bot quick because as soon as you start building troops the bot will respond and do the same.

I was playing a game the other day where I was trying to take over SA and 2 turns in I had 9 troops in one territory there getting ready to take out the small number of troops other players had, a bot had a territory with 3 troops there and the bot's next turn it started building up troops there and just kept putting troops there every turn to match me even though it made zero tactical sense. 

In this game SA was blocked off from NA and the bot kept building up troops in SA blocking me off from Africa.  It kept putting troops in SA even though it made zero tactical sense since most of it's troops were in other places when it started the troop buildup.

So I was trapped in SA and pinned in by a bot who just kept adding troops and fortifying while it's troops were decimated everywhere else. I couldn't attack the bot because it would have been suicide and it didn't attack me so I had to sit there and wait for the bot to leave.  If finally did after about 5 turns of just sitting there but it ruined my chances of winning the game because everyone else was building up troops and securing continents while I was stuck next to the stupid bot.  And after the bot finally left it tried to take over Africa but attacked until it didn't have any troops left so it was then easily taken out.  A human would have never done that if they were trying to win but bots do dumb crap like that constantly.

Like I said, I had Risk on my Iphone 10 years ago that had very good AI.  It wasn't as good as a human but it wasn't completely useless ether, the computer could beat you.  I don't understand how the AI in SMG Risk can be so terrible 10 years later.  I've seen bots win in SMG Risk but it was only because the other players ignored the bots and attacked each other until it was too late and the bots had just built up to overwhelming numbers.

Recently the bots started to attack grouped armies at their borders. They perceive then as threat, but only if the numbers are similar to their own. They never attack much larger armies. Most often they would leave alone a single army in a completely undefended continents. They tend to spread through weakly defended areas and they leave several armies in each conquered territory.  Once bots "decide" to take over a continent, you better leave or you will be involved in unwinnable fight with them.  Bots can be used as good allies. One of my favourite tactics if I happen to get Australia and a bot is close by in Europe or Asia is to allow the bot to close me from South Asia. I keep adding a few troops in Australia just enough to discourage the bot of attacking me and I place my troops elsewhere in the world. That way I effectively use the bot to shield my Australian troops from other players.  I generally let bots grow in strength and I encourage other players to fight them.

The bots have changed their behaviour recently. They used not to attack defending armies if they had fewer armies. Now they use their bonus armies to build up their armies and as soon as they have advantage they attack.  So, it is not safe anymore to barricade in Australia or SA and have bots on the borders. And yes, once the bots pick on someone they relentlessly attack. I found out that the best way to control the bots is to get rid of them in vicinity of your major forces early in the game even at high cost. If you do so, they usually become someone else's problem, if you do not, they keep building up until they finally attack you all of the sudden.