The reason to why I enjoy the ACKS rules, is the possibility of more extensive play, beyond the dungeoncrawl. Realm administration, arbitrage trade, magic research, faithful believers and expanding churches and organizations. There are lots of great possibilities. The wargaming roots could not offer role playing aspects of this. Modules like: Dungeon magazine: Siege of Kratys Freehold, and Kingdombuilder of Paizo are great examples of attempts to delve into this area of play.
The article in the link, has a point in the fact that it may be crowdy to bring 20 adventurers into a dungeon. However, for me, the adventure has always been between the dungeons. This is where the story is created and where the players find their space in a well developed world. In such an adventure, there are a lot of more intelligent uses of a henchmen - beyond the 'potion taster'.
Are the Autarch company planing to create modules that cover this type of play? Moules that are well suited to be used in adventures where the players have responsibilities beyond the dungeoncrawl. Like: Competitive trade organizations plotting. Warmongering barony up north. Intrigues at the kingscourt? The necromancer and his undead armies.
Have anyone created, converted or knowledge of some great examples of such modules?
Modules, that requires the players to draw upon resources that the ACKS rules uniquely offer them. Resources beyond the standard dungeoncrawl abilities.
I did something similar for my home campaign when my players went searching for a home base in the wilderness. Here's my final summary/set of notes for "The High Ogrelands"
They took on this challenge like a platoon scale domains at war activity, but I was prepared for them to fight it like a regular dungeon if need be. In general, you can take any existing dungeon module, count up all the inhabitants, divide them into platoon or (less frequently) company scale units, and treat the dungeon like a fortified structure.
Failing that, I know in ACKs I have struggled with my players invading dungeons with their 19 strong strike force of PCs and henchmen. I have some ideas for how to more formally handle the way a dungeon reacts to them, but for now I'm just using some rough guidelines: that many characters is going to take a long time to get through narrow 10' hallways, and will make a lot of noise that will alert the inhabitants, who will all be able to prepare their defenses or retreat for help. Random encounters will likely hear and get to see the train of foes before being discovered, and can lie in wait for more random encounters to team up with, ultimately not attacking until another fight is joined, when they'll likely attempt to flank from the rear or side if possible.
As for official modules... only the Autarch knows, but a bunch of us on the discord have been brainstorming various ideas for adventures that could include more elements that would showcase the domain side of ACKs. If you haven't already, you should join us on the discord. Send me a PM and I'll get you an invite link.
That is great news. Domains has a lot of variables. The rules are simple, but still there is a lot of issues consider: balance, how to build challanges and how to present the challanges in a simple way. Having some resources to draw upon would be very good. Personally I have no idea on where to start. Whenever I try to put something togeather I always find something missing - important or not - I do not knwo. The book of Lairs & Encounters are a favorite of mine. I hope the product will be something similar.
In my old days of playing AD&D2e (in the early 1990s), we quickly got bored of dungeon-crawling. All our sessions were focused on "overland adventures" as it was termed then. Even now, that appeals to me much more than spending all our time in a hole in the ground.
I'd be especially interested in something that shows and escalation path for different campaign elements. Something that would chart events over the passage of time and build to something final. A meeting with a grumpy duke, fer instance, would lead through a series of milestones that would culminate in defending against his rebellion. Or an incursion by an upstart thieves guild. Or a grassroots religion forming that starts displacing the party Cleric's church. A broad strokes decision tree of events and choices that show a non-adventure based threat building against the PCs' interests.
Honestly, it's figuring out what all the non-PC rulers and guild leaders are doing either with or against the PCs that I find the hardest to pull off. A flow chart describing the actions and resources of friendly and competing parties over time would be a blessing.