numpop.awk

#!/usr/bin/awk -f

function turn_gainer(state,    idx,i,max,c,k) {

	max_offset = state["turns"] > 9 ? 9 : state["turns"]

	# We first try to search every move that gains a turn in one move,
	# than moves that gain a turn in two moves etc.

	for ( offset = 1; offset <= max_offset; offset++ ) {
		max = 0
		idx = 0
		for ( start = 1; start <= state["size"] - offset; start++ ) {
			if ( is_extra_turn(state, start, start + offset)) {
				idx = start
				k = highest_points_idx(state,start, start + offset)
				c = (state[k]+state[k+1]) % 10
				if ( c > max ) {
					max = c
					idx = k
				}
			}
		}
		if ( idx ) return idx
	}

	# If there isn't a turn to gain, we just search for the highest points

	return highest_points_idx(state, 1, state["size"] - 1)
}

function print_state(state, start, end, i ) {
	for( i = start; i <= end; i++ ) {
		printf state[i]
		if ( i != end )
			printf ","
	}
}

function highest_points_idx ( state, start, end,   max, i, idx, c ) {
	idx = start
	for ( i = start; i < end ; i++ ) {
		c = (state[i]+state[i+1]) % 10
		if ( c > max) {
			max = c
			idx = i
		}
	}
	return idx
}

function is_extra_turn (state, start, end,   sum, i ) {
	sum=0
	for ( i = start; i <= end; i++ ) {
		sum += state[i]
	}
	if ( sum % 10 == 0 )
		return 1
	else
		return 0
}

function pop (a, pos,   i ) {
	a[pos] = (a[pos] + a[pos+1]) % 10
	a["score"] += a[pos]
	for (i = pos + 2; i <= a["size"]; i++ )
		a[i-1] = a[i]
	a[a["size"]] = int(rand()*10)
	if ( a[pos] == 0 ) 
		a["turns"]++
	else
		a["turns"]--
}

function print_game (a,    i) {
		for ( i = 1; i <= a["size"]; i++ ) {
			printf "%s", a[i]
			if ( i <= a["size"] - 1)
				printf " (%s) ", i 
		}
		printf "\n"
}

BEGIN {
	if (seed)
		srand(seed)
	else
		srand()

	state["turns"] = 10
	state["score"] = 0
	state["size"] = 10
	for ( i = 1; i <= state["size"] ; i++ )
		state[i] = int(rand()*10);

	while ( state["turns"] > 0 ) {
		print_game(state)

		pos = turn_gainer(state)

		printf "AI: %d\n",pos
		pop(state, pos)
		printf "Gain: %d Score: %d Turns: %d\n", state[pos], state["score"], state["turns"]
	}
}

Run it with awk -f numpop.awk. If you want to run it in a loop you better call it with awk -v seed="$RANDOM" -f, srand in awk uses epoch for srand and you get the same seed if you run it multiple times in the same second