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How Many Soldiers Do You Need To Beat The Night King?

Posted on Sun 26 May 2019 in misc

Here's an interesting puzzle from Five Thirty Eight's Riddler section that I worked out in Julia.

At a pivotal moment in an epic battle between the living and the dead, the Night King, head of the army of the dead, raises all the fallen (formerly) living soldiers to join his ranks. This ability obviously presents a huge military advantage, but how big an advantage exactly?

Forget the Battle of Winterfell and model our battle as follows. Each army lines up single file, facing the other army. One soldier steps forward from each line and the pair duels — half the time the living soldier wins, half the time the dead soldier wins. If the living soldier wins, he goes to the back of his army’s line, and the dead soldier is out (the living army uses dragonglass weapons, so the dead soldier is dead forever this time). If the dead soldier wins, he goes to the back of their army’s line, but this time the (formerly) living soldier joins him there. (Reanimation is instantaneous for this Night King.) The battle continues until one army is entirely eliminated.

What starting sizes of the armies, living and dead, give each army a 50-50 chance of winning? "

Initial Thoughts

This looked like a textbook random walk problem with the task of finding the right initial parameters that would make both the walks hit the X axis before the other equally likely. The dead army is at obvious advantage and on an average would remain constant whereas the living army would be going down at a steady rate of half a soldier per turn. I was tempted to attack this mathematically right away but decided to simulate first to get an estimate of the answer first. My hunch was n times log2(n)

# Some simulations with 100 living army soldiers and 10 dead army soldiers
vstack(hstack([plotrandomwalk(10) for run in 1:3]), hstack([plotrandomwalk(10) for run in 1:3]))
x -300 -250 -200 -150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 -250 -240 -230 -220 -210 -200 -190 -180 -170 -160 -150 -140 -130 -120 -110 -100 -90 -80 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210 220 230 240 250 260 270 280 290 300 310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390 400 410 420 430 440 450 460 470 480 490 500 -250 0 250 500 -260 -240 -220 -200 -180 -160 -140 -120 -100 -80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 260 280 300 320 340 360 380 400 420 440 460 480 500 h,j,k,l,arrows,drag to pan i,o,+,-,scroll,shift-drag to zoom r,dbl-click to reset c for coordinates ? for help ? -150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150 200 250 -100 -95 -90 -85 -80 -75 -70 -65 -60 -55 -50 -45 -40 -35 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130 135 140 145 150 155 160 165 170 175 180 185 190 195 200 -100 0 100 200 -100 -90 -80 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 y x -250 -200 -150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 -200 -190 -180 -170 -160 -150 -140 -130 -120 -110 -100 -90 -80 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210 220 230 240 250 260 270 280 290 300 310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390 400 -200 0 200 400 -200 -180 -160 -140 -120 -100 -80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 260 280 300 320 340 360 380 400 h,j,k,l,arrows,drag to pan i,o,+,-,scroll,shift-drag to zoom r,dbl-click to reset c for coordinates ? for help ? -150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150 200 250 -100 -95 -90 -85 -80 -75 -70 -65 -60 -55 -50 -45 -40 -35 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130 135 140 145 150 155 160 165 170 175 180 185 190 195 200 -100 0 100 200 -100 -90 -80 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 y x -300 -250 -200 -150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 -250 -240 -230 -220 -210 -200 -190 -180 -170 -160 -150 -140 -130 -120 -110 -100 -90 -80 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210 220 230 240 250 260 270 280 290 300 310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390 400 410 420 430 440 450 460 470 480 490 500 -250 0 250 500 -260 -240 -220 -200 -180 -160 -140 -120 -100 -80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 260 280 300 320 340 360 380 400 420 440 460 480 500 h,j,k,l,arrows,drag to pan i,o,+,-,scroll,shift-drag to zoom r,dbl-click to reset c for coordinates ? for help ? -150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150 200 250 -100 -95 -90 -85 -80 -75 -70 -65 -60 -55 -50 -45 -40 -35 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130 135 140 145 150 155 160 165 170 175 180 185 190 195 200 -100 0 100 200 -100 -90 -80 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 y x -300 -250 -200 -150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 -250 -240 -230 -220 -210 -200 -190 -180 -170 -160 -150 -140 -130 -120 -110 -100 -90 -80 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210 220 230 240 250 260 270 280 290 300 310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390 400 410 420 430 440 450 460 470 480 490 500 -250 0 250 500 -260 -240 -220 -200 -180 -160 -140 -120 -100 -80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 260 280 300 320 340 360 380 400 420 440 460 480 500 h,j,k,l,arrows,drag to pan i,o,+,-,scroll,shift-drag to zoom r,dbl-click to reset c for coordinates ? for help ? -150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150 200 250 -100 -95 -90 -85 -80 -75 -70 -65 -60 -55 -50 -45 -40 -35 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130 135 140 145 150 155 160 165 170 175 180 185 190 195 200 -100 0 100 200 -100 -90 -80 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 y x -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 -25 -24 -23 -22 -21 -20 -19 -18 -17 -16 -15 -14 -13 -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 -25 0 25 50 -26 -24 -22 -20 -18 -16 -14 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 h,j,k,l,arrows,drag to pan i,o,+,-,scroll,shift-drag to zoom r,dbl-click to reset c for coordinates ? for help ? -150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150 200 250 -100 -95 -90 -85 -80 -75 -70 -65 -60 -55 -50 -45 -40 -35 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130 135 140 145 150 155 160 165 170 175 180 185 190 195 200 -100 0 100 200 -100 -90 -80 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 y x -250 -200 -150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 -200 -190 -180 -170 -160 -150 -140 -130 -120 -110 -100 -90 -80 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210 220 230 240 250 260 270 280 290 300 310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390 400 -200 0 200 400 -200 -180 -160 -140 -120 -100 -80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 260 280 300 320 340 360 380 400 h,j,k,l,arrows,drag to pan i,o,+,-,scroll,shift-drag to zoom r,dbl-click to reset c for coordinates ? for help ? -150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150 200 250 -100 -95 -90 -85 -80 -75 -70 -65 -60 -55 -50 -45 -40 -35 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130 135 140 145 150 155 160 165 170 175 180 185 190 195 200 -100 0 100 200 -100 -90 -80 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 y

Julia Walks

# Played around with Julia for kicks and
# I'm a convert now! More than the blinding
# speed part, I was impressed with just how
# bloody pleasant and expressive it is. And I
# haven't even explored the homoiconicity and 
# multiple dispatch parts. 

# Evolution function starts with m living soldiers and 
# n dead soldiers and returns 1 if the living win and
# 0 if the dead win

function evolution(m,n)
    while min(m,n) > 0
        duel = rand([0,1])
        duel == 0 ? (m,n) = (m-1, n+1) : (m,n) = (m, n-1)
    end
    m > 0 ? (return 1) : (return 0)  
end


# Simula function runs the Evolution function t number of
# times and gives an estimate of the probability of living
# army winning the duel.

# Takes the number of dead soldiers and a function that computes
# the number of living soldiers as a function of the number of
# dead soldiers as inputs

function simula(n,t,f)
    return sum([evolution(f(n),n) for trial in range(1,stop=t)])/t
end

Let's look at how the probabilities emerge for twice, thrice etc. times the soldiers for different numbers of soldiers.

[[simula(n, 10000, x -> m*x) for m in 1:n] for n in 4:10]

[0.2242, 0.3556, 0.4437, 0.4938]                                                
[0.1813, 0.3123, 0.3864, 0.4507, 0.5031]                                        
[0.1453, 0.2676, 0.3447, 0.4141, 0.4529, 0.4922]                                
[0.115, 0.2208, 0.3144, 0.3755, 0.4221, 0.4524, 0.4893]                         
[0.096, 0.1964, 0.2794, 0.3448, 0.3998, 0.4287, 0.4609, 0.4971]                 
[0.0758, 0.1733, 0.2443, 0.322, 0.3578, 0.4041, 0.4359, 0.4593, 0.4952]         
[0.0605, 0.1531, 0.2304, 0.2881, 0.3421, 0.3893, 0.4088, 0.4451, 0.4809, 0.4867]

$n\;\implies \;n^2$ looks like a promising bet. Let's look at how this stays for different values of n

[simula(n, 10000, x -> x^2) for n in 1:10:100]

0.496 
0.4902
0.4831
0.4817
0.4864
0.4893
0.4781
0.48  
0.4807
0.4774

I began to notice a clear trend of the probability falling for larger values of n. Tried out a couple of other functions $n^2\; +\;n,\;n^2\;+\;log(n)$ etc and figured I should try solving it analytically. So I start exploring some simple configurations and notice a neat recurrence relation.

$$P(m,n)\;=\;P(m-1,n+1)/2\:+\:P(m,n-1)/2$$

I then strayed into combinatorial methods and thought I got it right but soon noticed an error which made me understand this is equivalent to a partition problem with some cunning constraints.

If the living and dead started with armies of sizes $m$ and $n$ respectively, the living could win in $n,\;n+2,\;n+4,....\;\;n+2(m-1)$ steps, corresponding to the living losing $1,\;2,\;...\;m-1$ times

So, the total probability of the living winning this duel $P(L_{w})\;=\;\sum\limits_{i=0}^{m-1} \;P(L_{w_{n+2i}})$

This now seems pretty straightforward since $P(L_{w_{n+2i}})$ is equal to the number of ways in which $i$ losses can be distributed among $n+2i$ duels divided by $2^{n+2i}$, which is ${{n+2i-2} \choose i}/2^{n+2i}$. ($n+2i-2$ since the living couldn't have lost in the last two duels)

Easy Peasy right? Not so fast!

We are overcounting here since a lot of configurations that wouldn't have been possible are being included.

Consider the following configuration for example that would be counted as part of $m\;=\;6,\;n\;=\;10,\;i\;=\;5$

$WWWWWWWWWWWLLLLLWW$

This would have been counted as one among ${{10+2*5-2} \choose 5}$, but it is clearly not valid since the duel would've ended after the first 10 wins itself.

What we have here is the classical problem of finding the number of integral solutions to $a\:+\:b\;+\;c\;+\;....+\;m\;=\;n$ but with a twisted set of constraints $a\;<\;p,\;b\;<\;f(p),\;c\;<\;g(p+f(p))$etc. There were a couple of threads that I felt were worth exploring using recursion and complimentary counting techniques but eventually decided to programmatically solve using the recurrence relation.

The naive programmatic solution is quite trivial and horribly inefficient as one might guess. The optimized function uses the dynamic programming technique. Was pretty pleased with the solution actually where I iterated along the family of lines $x\:+\:y\:=\:k$ and exploited the boundary conditions $f(m,0)\;=\;1,\;f(0,n)\;=\;0$ You can refer to this excellent write up by Dan Swenson, a math professor at Black Hills State University where it is explained in detail. He even proved that P(undead army wins) = P(between x and (x + y − 1) Heads in (2x + y − 1) flips of a fair coin) and also gave a polynomial approximation for the same - 1.099054669y^2 - 0.5y + 0.5 Very cool!

function wincalc_naive(m,n)
     (n == 0) && (return 1)
     (m == 0) ? (return 0) : (return wincalc_naive(m-1,n+1)/2 + wincalc_naive(m,n-1)/2)
end 


liner(i)  = [(x,y) for x in 2:i-1 for y in 2:i-1 if x+y == i+1]



# In hindsight, I should've worked
# with a  model of origin at (1,1) 
# and the boundary conditions
# f(1,m) = f(1, m-1)/2 etc.

function wincalc_opt(n)
    q = zeros(Float64, (n+1, n+1))
    for index in 1:n+1 q[index,1] = 1.0 end
    for i in 3:n 
        for (x,y) in liner(i) 
            (q[x,y] == 0) && (q[x,y] = q[x-1,y+1]/2 + q[x,y-1]/2) 
        end 
    end
    return q[2:n,2:n]
end

$n^2$ approximation vs the actual function

# The minimum number of living for a given number of dead at which living have a better chance of winning (>.5)

Gadfly.set_default_plot_size(18cm, 24cm)

z = wincalc_opt(1600)
y = [findfirst(x -> x > 0.5, z[:,dead]) for dead in 1:1600 if findfirst(x -> x > 0.5, z[:,dead]) != nothing]
x = 1:length(y)

plot(layer(x=x, y=y, Geom.line,Geom.point, Theme(default_color="orange")),
     layer(x=1:40, y=map(x -> x^2,x), Geom.line, Theme(default_color="red")))
Out[106]:
x -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 -40 -38 -36 -34 -32 -30 -28 -26 -24 -22 -20 -18 -16 -14 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 74 76 78 80 -50 0 50 100 -40 -35 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 h,j,k,l,arrows,drag to pan i,o,+,-,scroll,shift-drag to zoom r,dbl-click to reset c for coordinates ? for help ? -2500 -2000 -1500 -1000 -500 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 -2000 -1900 -1800 -1700 -1600 -1500 -1400 -1300 -1200 -1100 -1000 -900 -800 -700 -600 -500 -400 -300 -200 -100 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 2100 2200 2300 2400 2500 2600 2700 2800 2900 3000 3100 3200 3300 3400 3500 3600 3700 3800 3900 4000 -2000 0 2000 4000 -2000 -1800 -1600 -1400 -1200 -1000 -800 -600 -400 -200 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000 2200 2400 2600 2800 3000 3200 3400 3600 3800 4000 y

Some Helper Functions etc.

using Gadfly
using LaTeXStrings
Gadfly.set_default_plot_size(30cm, 20cm)




function randomwalk(o, n)
    steps = rand([-1, 1], n)
    path = [o]
    for epoch in 1:n
        append!(path, path[length(path)] + steps[epoch])
    end
    return path
end

    
function firstcrosssimulation(m,bw)
    epoch = 0
    while m > 0
        epoch += 1
        m += rand([-1,bw])
    end
    return epoch
end



function firstcross(m,n,bw)
    return sum([firstcrosssimulation(m,bw) for trial in 1:n])/n
end



function evolutionplot(m,n)
    mpath, npath = [m], [n]
    while min(m,n) > 0
        duel = rand([0,1])
        duel == 0 ? (m,n) = (m-1, n+1) : (m,n) = (m, n-1)
        append!(mpath, m)
        append!(npath, n)
    end
    
    m > 0 ? (result = 1) : (result = 0)
    
    return result, mpath, npath
end

#### Overcounted Function

winlivin(living,dead) = sum([binomial(BigInt(dead + 2*deaths - 2),BigInt(deaths))/(2^(dead + 2*deaths)) for deaths in range(0, stop=living-1)])


function plotrandomwalk(n)
    result, mpath, npath = evolutionplot(n^2,n)
    p =   plot(layer(x=range(1,stop=length(mpath)), 
                     y=mpath, Geom.line,  
                     Theme(default_color="orange")),
               layer(x=range(1,stop=length(npath)), 
                     y=npath, Geom.line,  
                     Theme(default_color="red")))
    return p
end
plot(x = range(1,stop=21), y = randomwalk(30, 20), Geom.point, Geom.line)
Out[386]:
x -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 -25 -24 -23 -22 -21 -20 -19 -18 -17 -16 -15 -14 -13 -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 -25 0 25 50 -26 -24 -22 -20 -18 -16 -14 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 h,j,k,l,arrows,drag to pan i,o,+,-,scroll,shift-drag to zoom r,dbl-click to reset c for coordinates ? for help ? 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0 9.5 10.0 10.5 11.0 11.5 12.0 12.5 13.0 13.5 14.0 14.5 15.0 15.5 16.0 16.5 17.0 17.5 18.0 18.5 19.0 19.5 20.0 20.5 21.0 21.5 22.0 22.5 23.0 23.5 24.0 24.5 25.0 25.5 26.0 26.5 27.0 27.5 28.0 28.5 29.0 29.5 30.0 30.5 31.0 31.5 32.0 32.5 33.0 33.5 34.0 34.5 35.0 35.5 36.0 36.5 37.0 37.5 38.0 0 10 20 30 40 14.0 14.5 15.0 15.5 16.0 16.5 17.0 17.5 18.0 18.5 19.0 19.5 20.0 20.5 21.0 21.5 22.0 22.5 23.0 23.5 24.0 24.5 25.0 25.5 26.0 26.5 27.0 27.5 28.0 28.5 29.0 29.5 30.0 30.5 31.0 31.5 32.0 32.5 33.0 33.5 34.0 34.5 35.0 35.5 36.0 36.5 37.0 37.5 38.0 y