This paper introduces a computational strategic game model capable of mitigating the adversarial impact of node misbehaviour in large-scale Internet of Things (IoT) deployments. This security model’s central concept is to preclude the participation of misbehaving nodes during the routing process within the ad hoc environment of mobile IoT nodes. The core of the design is a simplified mathematical algorithm that can strategically compute payoff embrace moves to maximise gain. At the same time, a unique role is given to a node for restoring resources during communication or security operations. Adopting an analytical research methodology, the proposed model uses public and private cloud systems for integrating quality service delivery with secure agreements using a Global Trust Controller and core node selection controller to select an intermediate node for data propagation. The initiation of the game model is carried out by identifying mobile node role followed by choosing an optimal payoff for a normal IoT node. Finally, the model leads to an increment of gain for selecting the regular IoT node for routing. The findings of the evaluation indicate that the proposed scheme offers 36% greater accuracy, 25% less energy, 11% faster response time, and 27% lower cost than the prevalent game-based models currently used to solve security issues. The value added by the proposed study is the simplified game model which balances both security demands and communication demands.