Part 3
Before long, the numbers started to rapidly tank for both colonies, but one slowed and began to regrow. Colony 1 was now at -1 food stored, and 68 starved ants, and rising. Colony 4 began to quickly replenish their fallen, including adding in new soldiers.
In the span of about 30 seconds (at 25x speed) Colony 1 dropped to 181 ants. Colony 4 dropped down to 399, then climbed back up to 437. 4 was making more soldiers, although it seemed that they may not be needed. 30 more seconds and Colony 1 was down to 119 remaining, with 145 dead by starvation(all soldiers). Colony 4 was back up to 453.
Finally, Colony 4 was back up to 500 ants. Of which only one was a soldier, but that was probably more than necessary against 1's 30 total ants, 24 of whom were workers.
This is where things slowed considerably. Colony 4 was entirely focused on getting food efficiently from their side of the map. Colony 1 was just barely failing to replenish their food as fast as they died. Their food store wavered between 1 and -9, only one ant dying by starvation every 10 seconds or so. The more that died, the more they could keep their heads above water, especially if it was a soldier and not a worker who died.
It was at 22 total ants, 18 workers and 4 soldiers, that Colony 1 was starting to stay in the green. Meanwhile, Colony 4 had not only replenished what food store they lost during this initial fighting (~6500) but they were now above where they started, at 25955.
Colony 1 sent over 2 of their 4 soldiers, who dispatched a decent number of workers (who were immediately replaced) before dying. Shortly after, a third soldier starved to death, and the final soldier died trying to kill Colony 4's workers, in a 500 vs 1 fight.
Things screeched to a grinding halt at this point. Colony 4 was too focused on farming to send any ants to kill any of the remaining 18 worker ants, and Colony 1's workers were so inefficient that they only barely just made status quo, but never had the surplus needed to replenish their numbers. After about 3 solid minutes, a handful of 1's workers spiraled too far from home and starved, another handful walked right into Colony 4's workers and were killed. Down to 7.
Looking at their pathing, it was obvious that the ones who went off to die were the most "freedom" expressing. Running all over the place rather than going directly to and from any of the food stores they could reach. This left only the most efficient workers behind to keep going. I waited a minute or two before just letting it run and glancing over periodically to watch the death throws of Colony 1. I'm a big proponent of "it isn't over til the fat lady sings" and I didn't plan to end this thing until that number reached 0 and Colony 4 officially reigned supreme.
After about 6 minutes of nothing, until I saw they had gone from 7 to 8!
... They made a soldier. It seemed fine, though, as their food store kept going up, and was now in the low 100s. Another couple minutes, and another solider. Let's hope their overly-aggressive nature doesn't cause them to foolishly make more soldiers than their workers can feed. A worker ventured too far into 4's territory and is killed, along with another soldier, so they birth another soldier, who is also killed, then replaced again.
This happens a few times, a soldier born, then killed by 4's workers. It's no problem for 4, who now has a food store of a whopping 91,816, which is more than half of all of the food Colony 1 has ever accumulated combined.
Over the next 23 minutes, Colony 1 keeps making the mistake of birthing more soldiers rather than workers, and having them die, with the occasional worker who is never replaced. Then it finally happened. With just 1 worker remaining, Colony 1 spawned a soldier ant, then the worker wandered into Colony 4's workers and was killed. The food dropped to 0 and the soldier promptly starved to death.