Questions on a new design

I'm starting over my PCB design with a Cyclone III chip. I made a new quartus II project with my code that runs on my cyclone II, but cyclone III chip selected and ran the powerplay estimator with my program on the chip I will use. Then I am going to use the National Semi Webbench tool to pick 3 regulators for the FPGA, and 2 more for my accessories needing 3.3 and 5 volts. The whole thing will run from rechargable batteries ran in series to make 12 volts.

My research on this showed a design where 1 main regulator ciruit makes 5 volts, and the others make the lower voltages off that. And so I wonder what you think?

here are a few possibilities

1. It won't work without this part

2. This approach may give me better chances of a working first design

3. This might give me a few minutes more run-time from the batteries.

4. I should skip the common 5 volt rail to keep it simple.