Paralysis from analysis

[Brich]

Help! Got a beer brewing kit and cider making kit for xmas 2020. Now my basement looks like an episode of hoarders with equipment, glass jugs, bottles etcetera. Reading and watching hundreds of hours on YouTube, Google, and now I found HBT! Where admittedly I think im more confused but I feel I'm at least with my own kind.
Im learning and picking up lots of information and im working on getting setup with kegging now (bottle carbing has only produced flat or gushing ciders and only flat beers so far) so now im trying to look into the crystal ball and decide how many kegs im gonna have (I have 3 now) a 20 pound co2 tank (overkill) trying to figure out how many regulators I need to purchase once rather than spend even more money buying each time I think I might expand.
I digress, I very much enjoy this new hobby but I dont want to have to get a second job to afford it.
I'm thinking I would like to have one or two beers on tap, a cider, a mead, a root beer or soda (if I ever find one I like) and a kegcarbing, one room to have one cold crashing or conditioning. So,
1. do I have to buy a 5 regulator setup or just 2 and run a 6 way splitter?
2. What is a decent regulator in your opinion?
I haven't bought a freezer yet but I know to get one that will allow expansion, I was thinking just 7.2 but looks like I'll have to go bigger than that or decrease my wants.
I know I'll have more questions but I figured I'm gonna try to just overthink one thing at a time for my sanity and pocketbook. Thank you in advance and i love reading all the opinions on here.

 

[bkboiler]

the root beer may be the one tough cookie there...I brew a lot of American ales and anything in the 2-3 volumes of CO2 range is usually fine, but rootbeer is like 4 volumes of CO2 right?
However, if I consistently liked to have barleywines and tripels on tap concurrently, I may decide to get a secondary reg.
I switched from my old kegco to a taprite reg recently and love it.
That's cool that you like to have mead on tap...I've brewed several strong meads that ended up being rocket fuel...but one of my favorites was a lower ABV version (7%) that was highly sparkling (bottled). I keep telling myself I want to go back and remake it and keg it up!
Cheers!

 

[Jayjay1976]

I run 2 regulators; the one on my tank is set to 50psi, I split the line off to have one line for fast carbonating kegs, the other leg feeds my one secondary regulator which takes the 50 down to ~12 psi which leads to a 4-way manifold that feeds my kegs. I have 4 taps/kegs and room for a fifth for lagering.

I started out planning to have a secondary regulator for each keg but IMHO that is just expensive overkill. I'd rather invest that money into a beer gas setup and a stout faucet sometime down the road.

Btw, as far as regulator brands go, for me its Taprite all the way. Buy once, cry once..