  The CALICE collaboration investigates different technology options for highly
granular calorimeters for detectors at a future electron-positron collider. One
of the devices constructed and tested by the collaboration is a 1m^3 prototype
for an imaging scintillator-steel sampling calorimeter for hadrons with
analogue readout (AHCAL). The light from 7608 small scintillator cells is
detected with silicon photomultipliers. The AHCAL has been successfully
operated during electron and hadron test-beam measurements at DESY, CERN, and
Fermilab since 2005. The collected data allow for evaluating the novel
technologies employed. In addition, these data provide a valuable basis for
validating pion cascade simulations. This paper presents the current status of
comparisons between the AHCAL data and predictions from different Monte Carlo
models implemented in GEANT4. The comparisons cover the total visible energy,
longitudinal and radial shower profiles, and the shower substructure.
Furthermore, this paper discusses a software compensation algorithm for
improving the energy resolution of the AHCAL for single pions.
