Ray, I would like to give some ideas to that project of yours. I'm very fond to these creative projects, our fellow Dmaz is a witness of that. But right now my time is with Enola's Draft Game, so won't be able to join soon. Anyway there's a crazy idea I have in mind, to allow
each member of Thorin's Company to be depicted as a companion and have everyone in play at the same time, without creating problematic imbalances.
I call it the
"Rule of 5". Five is normally the safe number of companions in the fellowship, before bigger punishments beat on them (
Shotgun Enquea et al). We all know the reason: it's a good but not excesive number of defenders to not overcome easily a Beatdown or Swarm Shadow. That is related to the number of cards in hand each Shadow player has to play: 8. So this "Rule of 5" starts punishing the Company for each companion more than 5:
"Each time the fellowship moves, for each companion in the fellowship AND the dead pile over 5, add and each Shadow player may take a card from his or her discard pile and put it at the bottom of the draw deck, then draw a card". And of course you have to ditch the "Rule of 9", replacing it with a "Rule of 15": Bilbo + 13 Dwarves + Gandalf.
At every site, a large Company would be countered by a large horde of enemies: 8 companions would be 11 twilight and 11 cards in each Shadow player's hand, 10 companions means 15 twilight and 13 cards, 12 companions means 19 twilight and 15 cards...
That kind of rule shouldn't threaten small decks with decking them out, as the draw deck feeds (from discard pile) with the same amount of cards drawn due to this rule. Thus, it should work wonders with either small or big decks, designed to run either slow or fast through it.
That's all I have to say by now. Peace and health sir!
Durin's Heir