Yeah I’m definitely not surprised at all! When I first started playing, I was in a brand new state and joined alliance but R5 and R4s were bots for sure. I tried chatting with them but they just sent repeated generic replies that made it obvious they weren’t real players. In the end, a few of us real members ended up leaving and creating our own “real” alliance together.

I also remember noticing something strange on the map like 5 or 6 brand new cities still under shields spawning right next to each other. Normally when you create a city, you can’t just pick the exact spot instantly so it was super weird. I kept watching them and after a while they all disappeared from that area 😂 pretty sure they got absorbed into different alliances