Ant science using AoE2, Lanchester's Square Law and military science

Описание: What do video games, ants and war have in common? Other than being focused on dictatorships these are related to science. In this case AoE 2 is being used to study ant warfare and how some species achieve success or fail.

AoE2 is a video game base don real time strategy. You build up a system of structures, fortifications and research to produce units. The units fight on a rock paper scissors basis. The skill with which you manage the production of buildings, units and collection of resources dictates how well you can play.

The catch is that not everything is predictable just base don game play. There are things that hold true no matter what situation they exist within. Whether it is a video game or a war zone.

The constant truth is Lanchester’s square law. A rule that says that a numerical advantage is offset by a limitation caused by terrain. That means even if a force is larger it can be mitigated by making large scale group battles into one on one duels.

This is also true of ants. A war between ants can be closely simulated by AoE2.

This is a study that was examining how an invasive ant species can be either beat or lose to a native Australian ant species. The Australian ants are larger, stronger but limited in number. The invasive, Argentine ants are smaller, weaker but far more numerous.

To recreate this the researchers used Teutonic knights. A unit with heavy armour, high hit points and often used in small numbers.

The Argentine ants were represented using the two handed swordsman. A standard unit with average armour and hit points but cheaper than the Teutonic knight and so fielded in larger numbers.

The situation should favour the swordsman and argentine ants but that si not what always happens. N occasion the the Australian ants win as a Teutonic knight. The reason is terrain.

So long as the fight is on a small scale that prevents the argentine ants ganging up on the Australian ant they can win the fight. This is exactly what lanchester’s law predicts will happen.

Of course the use of a video game to reenact insect activity is not perfect,. It is, however, very effective for the cost and performance you get.


Relevant links:

Saving Australia’s Ants With Age Of Empires II
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/30/savin...

What Age of Empires teaches us about ant warfare strategies
https://www.zmescience.com/ecology/an...

Scientists use Age of Empires 2 to investigate how ants wage war
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/scie...