A group of Australian scientists used the video game “Age of Empires II” to analyze how ants fight each other in real life, according to a study published in “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” (PNAS), a peer-reviewed journal.
The scientists used mathematical models on video game simulations to test how battlefield dynamics such as terrain, army size and fighter quality change the outcome of war. The scientists then tried to confirm these concepts in the real world using ant battles, according to an August press release from the study authors. The study has recently gained traction in the public eye, with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) publishing a report on the findings Monday.
The scientists used adaptions of English engineer Frederick William Lanchester’s laws for their mathematical models. Lanchester’s laws “described the outcome of battles as dependent on the individual strength of each soldier in opposing armies, and on the size of each army.”
The group specifically pitted small cohorts of stronger soldiers against large groups of weaker ones in the video game, researcher Samuel Lymbery told ABC. The scientists found soldiers in “Age of Empires” followed Lanchester’s laws even when the video game was “not explicitly programmed to do so,” according to the press release. (RELATED:‘Assassin’s Creed’ Video Game May Help Rebuild Notre Dame)
What is this? Warfare for ants?! 🐜
We’ve been using Age of Empires II to study ant warfare models and find options for non-native invasive ant management: https://t.co/Vt1QY3y17l pic.twitter.com/xf5aeerYSD
— CSIRO (@CSIRO) August 29, 2023
Lymbery recalled it was not all fun and games for the researchers, given they simply set up the same scenario and tested it over and over again without much interference. “This is probably the most boring way to play a video game,” he told ABC.
The group then tried to apply the same models they used in the video game to actual ant combat. “Ants are one of the few groups of animal species in which warfare resembles human warfare, in terms of scale and mortality,” Lymbery said. They pitted the Australian meat ant against the invasive Argentine ant for their experiment. The meat ant had a size advantage over the Argentine ant, but the Argentine ant typically had the advantage in numbers, according to the press release.
The scientists pitted groups of 20 native ants against groups of five to 200 invasive ants in simple and complex arenas, according to the published study. In this context, a simple arena meant “featureless plastic containers,” versus “the same containers with narrow wooden strips glued to the floor” constituting a complex arena, the press release reads.
The predictions made from Lanchester’s laws and the virtual combat observations from “Age of Empires” turned out to be accurate in real-life conditions with ants, the researchers found. Fewer native ants died in battle within complex arenas — which could nullify army numbers advantages — compared with simple arenas, where fighter quality mattered.
The group’s work could help craft better habitat management to tilt the advantage back towards native species against invasive ones, Lymbery told ABC.