I ran into this as well. What I did was pretty simple:

1. install precise on an amd64 server, install a bunch of stuff
2. run dpkg --get-selections there
3. install a second amd64 server with precise
4 run apt-get update on the second server
5. run dpkg --set-selections with the list from the first server on the second server
6. run apt-get dselect-upgrade on the second server

This installed many, many i386 package. Some examples:

  apache2-utils:i386* apache2.2-bin:i386* comerr-dev:i386* cpp-4.6:i386* gcc-4.6-base:i386* haproxy:i386*
  icedtea-6-jre-cacao:i386* icedtea-6-jre-jamvm:i386* icedtea-netx:i386* krb5-multidev:i386* libapr1:i386*
  libaprutil1:i386* libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3:i386* libaprutil1-ldap:i386* libasn1-8-heimdal:i386* libasound2:i386*
  libasyncns0:i386* libatk-wrapper-java-jni:i386* libatk1.0-0:i386* libaudio2:i386* libavahi-client3:i386*
  libavahi-common-data:i386* libavahi-common3:i386* libboost-filesystem1.46.1:i386*
  libboost-program-options1.46.1:i386* libboost-python1.46.1:i386* libboost-regex1.46.1:i386*
  libboost-regex1.48.0:i386* libboost-system1.46.1:i386* libboost-thread1.46.1:i386* libbsd0:i386* libbz2-1.0:i386*
  libc-ares-dev:i386* libc-ares2:i386* libc6:i386* libc6-dev:i386* libcairo2:i386* libcap2:i386* libcomerr2:i386*
  libcroco3:i386* libcups2:i386* libcurl3-gnutls:i386* libdatrie1:i386* libdb4.8:i386* libdb5.1:i386* libdbi1:i386*
  libdbus-1-3:i386* libdrm-dev:i386* libdrm-intel1:i386* libdrm-nouveau1a:i386* libdrm-radeon1:i386* libdrm2:i386*
  libedit2:i386* libexpat1:i386* libexpat1-dev:i386* libffi6:i386* libflac8:i386* libfontconfig1:i386*
  libfontconfig1-dev:i386* libfreetype6:i386* libfreetype6-dev:i386* libgcc1:i386* libgcrypt11:i386*
  libgd2-noxpm:i386* libgdbm3:i386* libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0:i386* libgettextpo0:i386* libgif4:i386* libgl1-mesa-dev:i386*
  libgl1-mesa-dri:i386* libgl1-mesa-glx:i386* libglapi-mesa:i386* libglib2.0-0:i386* libglibmm-2.4-1c2a:i386*
  libglu1-mesa:i386* libglu1-mesa-dev:i386* libgmp10:i386* libgnutls26:i386* libgomp1:i386* libgpg-error0:i386*
  libgpgme11:i386* libgpm2:i386* libgssapi-krb5-2:i386* libgssapi3-heimdal:i386* libgssrpc4:i386*
  libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0:i386* libgstreamer0.10-0:i386* libgtk2.0-0:i386* libhcrypto4-heimdal:i386*
  libheimbase1-heimdal:i386* libheimntlm0-heimdal:i386* libhx509-5-heimdal:i386* libice6:i386* libicu48:i386*
  libidn11:i386* libjasper1:i386* libjpeg-turbo8:i386* libjpeg-turbo8-dev:i386* libjpeg8:i386* libjpeg8-dev:i386*
  libjson0:i386* libk5crypto3:i386* libkadm5clnt-mit8:i386* libkadm5srv-mit8:i386* libkdb5-6:i386* libkeyutils1:i386*
  libkms1:i386* libkrb5-26-heimdal:i386* libkrb5-3:i386* libkrb5-dev:i386* libkrb5support0:i386* liblcms1:i386*
  libldap-2.4-2:i386* libllvm3.0:i386* liblua5.1-0:i386* liblzo2-2:i386* libmng1:i386* libmpc2:i386* libmpfr4:i386*
  libmysqlclient18:i386* libncurses5:i386* libncursesw5:i386* libnspr4:i386* libnss3:i386* libnss3-1d:i386*
  libogg0:i386* libopts25:i386* liborc-0.4-0:i386* libossp-uuid16:i386* libp11-kit0:i386* libpam0g:i386*
  libpango1.0-0:i386* libpciaccess0:i386* libpcre3:i386* libpcrecpp0:i386* libpcsclite1:i386* libpixman-1-0:i386*
  libpkcs11-helper1:i386* libpng12-0:i386* libpng12-dev:i386* libpopt0:i386* libprotobuf7:i386* libpth20:i386*
  libpthread-stubs0:i386* libpthread-stubs0-dev:i386* libpulse0:i386* libqt4-dbus:i386* libqt4-declarative:i386*
  libqt4-designer:i386* libqt4-dev:i386* libqt4-help:i386* libqt4-network:i386* libqt4-opengl:i386*
  libqt4-opengl-dev:i386* libqt4-qt3support:i386* libqt4-script:i386* libqt4-scripttools:i386* libqt4-sql:i386*
  libqt4-sql-mysql:i386* libqt4-svg:i386* libqt4-test:i386* libqt4-xml:i386* libqt4-xmlpatterns:i386* libqtcore4:i386*
  libqtgui4:i386* libqtwebkit-dev:i386* libqtwebkit4:i386* libquadmath0:i386* libreadline5:i386* libreadline6:i386*
  libroken18-heimdal:i386* librrd4:i386* librtmp0:i386* libsasl2-2:i386* libsasl2-modules:i386* libselinux1:i386*
  libsigc++-2.0-0c2a:i386* libsigsegv2:i386* libsm6:i386* libsndfile1:i386* libsqlite3-0:i386* libsqlite3-dev:i386*
  libssl-dev:i386* libssl1.0.0:i386* libstdc++6:i386* libtasn1-3:i386* libthai0:i386* libtiff4:i386* libtinfo5:i386*
  libtokyocabinet8:i386* libudev0:i386* libunistring0:i386* libutempter0:i386* libuuid1:i386* libvorbis0a:i386*
  libvorbisenc2:i386* libwind0-heimdal:i386* libwrap0:i386* libx11-6:i386* libx11-dev:i386* libx11-xcb1:i386*
  libxau-dev:i386* libxau6:i386* libxcb-glx0:i386* libxcb-render0:i386* libxcb-shm0:i386* libxcb1:i386*
  libxcb1-dev:i386* libxcomposite1:i386* libxcursor1:i386* libxdamage1:i386* libxdmcp-dev:i386* libxdmcp6:i386*
  libxext-dev:i386* libxext6:i386* libxfixes3:i386* libxft2:i386* libxi6:i386* libxinerama1:i386* libxml2:i386*
  libxrandr2:i386* libxrender1:i386* libxslt1.1:i386* libxt6:i386* libxtst6:i386* libxxf86vm1:i386* libyaml-0-2:i386*
  libyaml-dev:i386* linux-generic-pae:i386* linux-image-3.2.0-25-generic:i386* linux-image-3.2.0-29-generic:i386*
  linux-image-3.2.0-34-generic-pae:i386* linux-image-generic-pae:i386* linux-libc-dev:i386* linux-server:i386*
  mdadm:i386* mesa-common-dev:i386* mongodb-clients:i386* mongodb-server:i386* mutt:i386* openjdk-6-jre:i386*
  openjdk-6-jre-headless:i386* phantomjs:i386* qt4-linguist-tools:i386* qt4-qmake:i386* redis-server:i386*
  rrdtool:i386* sqlite3:i386* zlib1g:i386* zlib1g-dev:i386*