Yeah, I think the game's too far along to have much chance of attracting new players at this point. And continuing with a 3:5 ratio wouldn't be fun. I really think that calling it would be the best choice. Then discuss how things went, what worked, what didn't work, and how things might be improved. A forum game, especially a complicated and competitive one, is very hard to get right in one go.
Some suggestions I thought up already:
I think the stat-cost-balance should be better outlined. Not set in stone, but currently the only hard data is
A card that costs no stars to play would typically have a combined stat total of 5. (Example, 2 attack and 3 hearts). Useful effects will generally lower this, and detrimental effects can raise it. You can also make cards with no hearts which act like "Spells". Each star a card costs will typically raise its base stat total by 3 or 4. Very high star costs can have ridiculous effects.
Defining the 'cost' of some common effects would help calibrate expectations. Like, "Gens one star on ETB = -2 stats", "Deals 1 damage on ETB = -1 stat", "Flying = -2 stats", "Causes bleeding = +2 stats", etc. Obviously a comprehensive list would be impossible, but half a dozen examples would be good, I think. Also, examples of 'spell' (0-heart) card effects. I still think that 0 stars for a 4-damage boardwipe is too strong- and while balance is not my call, having it stated upfront what sort of strength one can expect spells to have would be useful.
Speaking of balance, I think that it would be good if we could all say what we thought about the balance of cards in this game, and discuss it. While democratic card-balancing is not viable, being able to give feedback is likely to make the next instalment more enjoyable. I mean, one need only look at the Card Repository to see that balance in these games can be a bit all over the place- which makes sense, given that IRL TCGs are balanced by large teams over the course of months, and
even then unbalanced stuff slips through the cracks. Expecting one person to be able to perfectly balance ten cards in a day or two is unrealistic (this is not criticism, to be clear- I think Supernerd has done a pretty good job).
Another thing- I played a game of this on Discord with DGR, and it worked quite well. I think it's worth considering the possibility of having the Battlefields be Discord channels, rather than threads. This would be beneficial for two reasons: one, it would allow for faster gameplay (if both players are online at the same time, that is. If not, it's the same speed as a forum thread). Two, it would take up less space on the first page of FGRP- which is a limited resource, and having one game with seven threads is a bit excessive.