Board Thread:The Last Sovereign Discussion/@comment-43871688-20190922205428/@comment-35006067-20190924182337

I wouldn't obsess that much over Carina's men if your save is strong otherwise. Chapter 3 is pretty much identical regardless of their status, and, for a lot of Chapter 4 events, Sierra deliberately made the investments needed to reach the very best results extremely expensive, and the second best results only marginally worse (no loss of unique thingies, little difference in stats), so that even extra rich players won't have that much of a head start compared to slightly less rich players by the end of the chapter.

However, if you're struggling with money, yes, buying only the big three in Chapter 1 (Bank, Mine, Special Supplier), letting them to die and snowball until you can buy not one but two banks in Ardford should help tremendously.

But it's the easy path. And you know what they say about the quicker, easier, more seductive path.