Board Thread:The Last Sovereign Discussion/@comment-33159082-20170922142940/@comment-32539089-20171006083943

Frostbringer79 wrote: Hmm I don't think you really need the bridge to get to 0 chaos, 0 collateral damage and enough victory points. Main reason I invest in it, is because without it you don't reach 29 enemy forces, which gives you the highest army size increase. Since in your setup you are not able to get to 201 army size (without investing in countrywide merc regulation) anway, it seems to be okay to have the bridge repaired later. So well option 2 looks clearly superior imo. I've been obsessively crunching numbers using the Yhilin Battle Guide, and here's what I've come up with for my set up:

Not having the Rebel Bridge in time means that I don't get Yarra's ambush (I miss the +1 VP), "Keep Current Position" (-5 Enemy Forces) results in "Enemies are Mixed" instead of "Enemies are Clustered", and to get "Enemies are Clustered" I need to choose "Group Opponents" (+1 Chaos).

Option 1: I choose "Group Opponents"  (+1 Chaos)  and get "Enemies are Clustered". With the right choices I can get close to my original results: 32 Army Size, 15 Army Quality (+1 from Estrin Supplier), 19 VP, 0 CD, 1 Chaos, 22 Yhilin Acc. The problem is that I'll be left with 1 Chaos at the end of Govern Yhilin 1, and I'll have to spend 10% funding to get rid of it. Thus, I have to give up some other Discretionary Funding option.

Option 2: I choose "Keep Current Position" and get "Enemies are Mixed". Best results:    23 Army Size, 15 Army Quality, 18 VP, 0 CD, 0 Chaos, 22 Yhilin Acc. The smaller army means that I'll have 171 Army Size instead of 193 for the 3rdAW: still doable. 18 VP means that I'll need to choose the Northen Site for the Trade Negotiations to get the 25+ VP needed to get the Doom King Statue. Having to wait for the Statue means that I won't reach the 40+ Acceptance threshold by the begining of Govern Yhilin 3, and therefore won't get the best results with the Forging Ties quest.

Option 2 seems like the better choice.