The importance of Drops/Regiments

Hi everyone,

I have been hearing/reading about how important is to keep low number of drops... But I have a few questions:

- Is it really THAT important? bearing in mind that the player with the highest number gets a little extra bonus with Honour guard...

- Related: is it really that important to choose who goes first/second? I am a newbie so I do not know...

- If you finally get higher drops than opponent, it does not matter if it is just 1 or 20, right? it is an all-or-nothing mechanic. So if you are higher it is better to be much much higher then...

Thanks! :-)