I hear you like money and friends, so here's the path to getting the most.

~20 friends, only a few enemies, romance if you want it, fully upgraded barony, no debt, 10k+ in assets

Note: THIS IS NOT A STEP-BY-STEP, PAGE BY PAGE GUIDE. It is a detailed outline. All the step by step guides + walkthroughs on individual choices' effects have already been done by other authors, and I have neither the time nor the desire to steal their work.

DO NOT do this as your first playthrough. It requires a ton of guide reading, flipping between this guide and other guides, and likely a few restarts from mistakes or misreading. It also relies on having all 3 games and reading others' guides for step by step.

See below for screenshots with proof on the end results of this path. This playthrough below wasn't fully optimized, since I was mean to Kat at points about killing wives and kids & didn't love elves, and had some RP choices which were suboptimal for pure stats + profit. You can have a couple more friends, better rep, and a good amount more money if you fully optimize

In general, do the national hero playthrough (with small tweaks below) - That guide is on steam in the Sabres of Infinity guide section.

Make sure you end up with high stats (the screenshots below was a 14 year old from the plains, but you'd have significantly more stats with a 25 year old or 30 year old from Aetoria).

Don't rat out Mr. Warcrimes in the patrol mission, so he doesn't become your enemy.

Don't do any warcrimes so Elson and Cunaris end up as your friends, but keep the Antari lord for ransom when you capture him with your cunning plan, since you need the money to invest in Game #2.

The below is likely somewhat out of order. It's the notes I took while looking back at this playthrough of Guns. Again, don't do this as your first playthrough since you won't know what events these are referring to.

Take Lanzerel's advice in prologue so he'll improve your squad

Send 0 money home so you get more debts and save more personal funds (I sent some for RP purposes).

Be nice to Kat, send a squad ahead to hold the bridge when you're escorting the guns, chase down the Antari who attack you on the path, take the path she suggests, but don't do the secret mission.

Don't do any warcrimes ever so Cunaris and his son will be your friends.

Do Blaylock's duel. You should have high enough int to not get caught. Congratulate him and tell him to come to you with similar situations in future.

Allow Sandoral to go to the Salon. Ask him to report the findings to you

Save the skirmishers of the Experimentals, when they are being attacked on the path, and be nice to them.

Invest a lot in Garing so he likes you. I did 2k crowns if I remember right.

Mentor Cunaris's son. Tell him warcrimes are wrong after the siege so he likes you.

You don't need to be a feminist in the big army meeting (I think it's after the siege) to be friends with Kat and Welles, but you can if you want more points with them. Start a romance if you want. I didn't in my playthrough.

Do the forlorn hope, but do it with Caz at your side (requires being nice to him in this game and the previous), otherwise he becomes your enemy. You miss out on a chance to loot, but the free promotion is worth more and you get a TON of rep if you dislodge the baneseals, etc.

Make sure you capture the howitzer guns in the battle which is a few missions after the siege. Luring the enemy cavalry in and then riding with them as a screen (idea which saves time and men), should ensure you get them.

Again, DON'T do the secret mission, because your friends will die, Cunaris will hate you, and the money you could get will be made up by a future "benefactor" later on. Instead do the big battle against Khorobirit. Allow the first guy's call for aid in the battle to go unanswered in the main combat (He dies, so you lose a friend but it has to be done to save more friends), send Caz's squad to the 2nd call for aid, and use the big guns you captured to save the Experimentals, while your other 2 squads go to save Welles and the infantry (you need 2 squads to ensure Lanzerel and co don't die).

Use the excellent steam guide by Xander for individual choices to ensure your squad is good enough, and to maximize people's opinions if you want to fully min-max.

Note: in the downtime periods. Don't write memoirs. It's a huge waste. Focus on in order: improving relationships, your stats, your squad. You also don't need to learn Antari. I did it below once for RP purposes, but there's no real benefit to it if you don't do it twice.

Start out in the prologue by aiding everyone's favorite political genius, Wulfram. You want at least 50 in Int and Cha. If you followed the guides mentioned above, especially from the first game & selecting a 25 or 30 year-old Aetorian, you should have way more than that.

You can raise rents if you want, but I didn't. Doesn't make that big of a difference. Don't lower them though because you get 250 tenants anyway if you invest in the barony.

Chill with your sister / brother in the first downtime at the estate. Writing memoirs lowers your stats.

Now here's the crux of it to get max money you need to borrow. Borrow like crazy. Start by borrowing from your neighbors in turn 1. Build a shrine turn 1 since it makes the integration of the Antari less painful to your tenants.

Then go to the capital. I recommend Wulfram's neighborhood townhouse as your abode (Tiago also mentions the octavia park townhouse, but if you do so you need to make doubly sure you'll have enough Wulfram influence to get him to buy your debts. I didn't when I tried the townhouse).

When you get to the capital, borrow from grenadier square. Then borrow from your friends at the capital. Then borrow from your club. Then take 5k loans, lots of them. I ended up with like 32k of debt if I remember right.

And here's what you do with it. Join the shipowners and invest your borrowed $. Invest in your barony too with Loch as steward. Make sure you don't invest too much in any given turn because the game can allow you to borrow, invest, have a negative ending balance, and immediately default. You need to make sure your ending balance is always positive after investing. You'll end up with fat stacks of cash from the investments if you have high int stat and club rep. Should be way more than even I had in the screenshots because I was RPing my character and didn't fully optimize for int. Your interest payments will end up being like 2-3k per turn towards the midgame but it doesn't matter since you can keep borrowing.

Play Tassenwerd for every more money and club rep. Tiago has a guide on it already. The shipowners like it if you go for max winnings, which is hilarious and awesome. In the 2nd Tassenwerd event, get the shipowners to lower Meran's interest rates so he likes you. You can then get him to leave the city later on to minimize bloodshed. I didn't have enough stats to win the gun shipment at cards in the 3rd Tassenwerd event so I didn't do it, but you likely will be able to if you fully min-max.

Keep aiding wulfram in the Cortes. At this point he's still reasonable, so it's even decent RP.

Join the commission. But do it on your own merits. Don't sabotage it so Welles likes you. Also so you're not a filthy traitor to the Army. Also if you accept Wulfram's offer to join it and then don't sabotage it you lose Wulfram influence, which is very bad. Steer it whichever way you want. Make sure to recommend full adoption of Garing's guns for profit in the next game (and pray this doesn't backfire).

Now the big switch. It's Kian treaty time. Get involved in the Shipowner scheme. Buy shares. Buy shares to the max, 10k. Tell your buddies in the club who have votes in the Cortes to get in on the scheme. Convince people to vote for the treaty. The treaty has to pass. If it doesn't pass, restart. But don't vote for it yourself, abstain.

And the reason why is you still need a good bit more Wulfram rep than Royalist rep for the immediate next bit. Wulfram will invite you to his house, offer to buy your debt himself (so he owns you), and get rid of the interest. Obviously accept since you'll go bankrupt shortly after if you don't. If you get invited to the queen's palace rather than Wulfram's house after the treaty, restart because the queen won't buy your debts.

You can then keep borrowing and investing since Wulfram doesn't charge interest, I believe, (I didn't do it at that point because I was RPing still being favorable to Wulfram in general and not taking advantage of his generosity). Make sure you pull all your investments out the turn before spring 617 or you'll get hit by the crash, then keep investing again afterward. (Tiago says you can ride out the crash if you have enough shipowners rep and high intelligence, and any small loss will be made up by higher gains in later turns, but it didn't work for me on either of my shipowner characters. Your mileage may vary)

When the riots start, take a middle path so Cunaris likes you. Don't side with either street mob, but judge cases individually. Then when Wulfram reveals his treachery, go saboteur, and burn his bank notes when the time comes. Adios 30k+ debt. You can even smash the door rather than burning the whole bank down in so you can keep your "no war crimes" conscience clean.

In the final battles do whatever you want, but make sure you destroy the bank notes or Wulfram will still own your debt obligations. I personally convinced Meran to leave the city, got the Shipowners to tie up the Marines in negotiations at the docks, and then used the cannon to disable the ship for minimal bloodshed

Follow Tiago's incredible guides for page by page requirements. Do not ask me for step by step advice. How to get enough Wulfram rep, and the choices you'd need to make is already in those guides if you ended up with too little post-treaty.