ACKS RAW WWJWD?

[Adventurer, Conquerer, King System, Rules AS Written, What Would John Wayne Do?]

My first instinct when coming to a new game system is to play it strictly as written for the first campaign.   I also like to monkey around with game systems I've played before, in order to acheive certain game style effects.  ACKS is a bit of a strange duck in that is both something we've played before (many times) and something new.

All told, it tweaks so many things from D&D into a direction that I like, that I'm falling more on the Rules as Written side (unlike, say Castles and Crusades, another Retro-clone that wasn't quite as much to my taste). 

The only thing I'm looking to change so far, is the switch from 6 mile hexes to 10 mile squares, and 24 mile hexes to 50 mile squares.  If we weren't using the Gatavia region again, I would have used hex maps, but on the whole, I do like squares better too. 

The initiative system might get a little clunky, with everyone rolling dice and adding modifiers every turn.  But, as much as I'd like something faster, such as dealing cards as per Savage Worlds, or rolling once per side, as per AD&D, there are just too many classes that have initiative modifiers built into their schtick and too many unforseen implications of changing the rules, I think that is certainly better to stay with what's written until we've seen it practice.

There are surprisingly few situational combat modifiers in the rules.   I think I'm going to miss some sort of gang-up bonus.   I just want to have piles of low hit dice slobs to have some sort of chance against up-armored jerks.   As written, once a creature or character has gotten to AC 9 or higher, a level 0 guy needs a 20 to hit, and most times that's a natural 20.   Now, Plate and Shield, the best straight armor has a AC of 7, so you'd still need to find another 2 points of bonus, but that's just the Weapon and Shield fighting style and a 13 Dex, or +1 plate and +1 shield.  

I'd just like it to be possible for the schmucks to get a few situational modifiers like:
1) gang-up rule: +1 to hit for each guy over 1; or
2) flank rule:  3.0 style, when 2 guys are on directly opposite sides of same target, both get +2 or
3) Shield/Rear: old school AD&D: when surrounded, guys on side ignore shield, guy in back ignores shield and gets a +2 attack bonus.

All three rules have their charms:  the first is simplest to manage and tends to be used most often.  The second focuses the mind on position at all times, and is a noticeable but always manageable bonus.  The third has the virtue of really only applying to humanoids, and can be ignored for most monsters.

I suppose we could just see how it works in practice and live with RAW.  I noticed that the magic armor is limited to only +3 and never gets to +5, which is awesome.  I will try to be vigilant about keeping magic armor and other magic AC boosts to a minimum, since they are the D&D game killers, if you want to keep your characters in the "real world."