You were looking for if/else. You'd use or to string together multiple conditionals.

if ( $dothis )
{
    if ( dofistcritical() )
    {
        dofirstremainder();
    }
    elsif ( dobackupcritical() )
    {
        dobackupremainder();
    }
    else
    {
        die "main and backup failed";
    }
    exit 0;
}
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