You're also probably looking at one of the most complex bidding arrangements that had ever existed. This isn't two Galaxy Commanders arguing with each other over who will destroy a Lyran battalion.
Joe: I bid four trinaries.
Steve: Oh yeah? I'll do it with three trinaries!
Joe: Then I'll do it with three trinaries, but one of them will be led by Sgt Doofus over there.
Steve: Ha! I'd like to see that.
And then Joe wins the bid.
This would be different. This would be a much more complex bidding process, involving 7 different Clans, (I think) 14 different cities, multiple possible landing locations, and bidding for landing times as well. They'd probably have to dust off an old manual for exactly how these complex bids are supposed to work, or create a unique set of rules on the spot. Every Clan also went in with a different plan. So you're looking at a lot of potential strategies, depending on what you value. 1) Bid so that you try to land early. To the Smoke Jaguars, this was most important. 2) Bid so that you get the landing spot you want. 3) Bid so that you get the easiest cities to capture. 4) Bid so that you get the most units. 5) Bid so that you bring your most prestigious units. 6) Bid so that you screw over the Wolves. There are probably a lot more strategies too.
And then remember that some Clan leaders are simply better at bidding than their counterparts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCcV5sVi5NMSome guys would probably bid away their forces too quickly. Some guys might tell which way the wind was blowing and act more conservatively. In the Aidan Pryde series, I seem to recall Kael Pershaw mentioning that the Falcon Khans were very conservative in how they bid, which resulted in a late drop, a long distance from their targets. We aren't sure what order the Khans went in bidding their forces. It could be that the Steel Viper and Diamond Shark Khans jumped the gun a bit (cutting their forces down too early), or got in a bidding war over their targets, or whatever. Perhaps the Falcons bid very high initially, so they had more units to bid away.
It's probably easier to write out the process as a piece of fiction rather than try and recreate the exact bidding process. And remember that each of the Khans is going to have a different personality, their own assumptions about the fight, and there were clearly a lot of mistakes made overall in the planning process for Tukayyid. I'm imagining it somewhere between a poker game and an auction.
