Fascinatingly today's was a toughie for my solver too - I mean, it got it, but it took 6 goes, just like I did. Hrmph.

Four here - very lucky on my third try. AAMOI, is your solver's first guess totally random, or does it have a fixed first try, or something in between?

It's fixed only in the sense that the algorithm it uses to decide on its next guess is stable and so will always choose the same word to start with given its input dictionary. If I were to trim the dictionary to match whatever wordle actually use, I imagine it might change.

My instinct is to mostly go with the same word each time - usually RAISE because it uses three vowels, and two very commonly used consonants, so probably increases my chance of finding one or more early. But I also feel strategizing like that detracts from the fun.

My personal approach is octal then siren, then go from there.

Hmm. Four vowels and some common consonants in the first two guesses - interesting. I might try that for the next one, but I'll go with 'roast' then 'fined' - effectively opting for 'd' and 'f' rather than 'c' and 'l'.