For those who wish to do points runs of Sengoku Rance
Firstly, if you're not looking to break the world record, aside from the stuff you should already know (do it on 5 Star, get the End Game Points skill, etc) here's some basic suggestions. One is to simply do a speedrun of the game, the fastest clear that I know of is 24 turns, see http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=37250#entry2259846 . Another suggestion is to hurry through the Ran route with as many bonuses as you can afford, and then to do the route again with even more bonuses, until you've reached a respectable number.

However, for those who either want enough points to use every bonus in the game (a total of 315, meaning that you need a 295 points run and to clear the 4 main routes) or for those who want to break world records, you've got a lot of reading ahead:
Firstly, if you can read Chinese (I repeat, Chinese), I believe that they hold the world record (322 points) and therefore they are the first place that you should go. See http://tieba.baidu.com/p/1087025483?see_lz=1 for a 321 points run that (I believe) covers a lot of the theory and see http://tieba.baidu.com/p/1274885739?see_lz=1 for a 322 points run that is more focused on just getting the job done. For reference, it has been argued that the theoretical maximum score is 323.

If you cannot read Chinese, but can read Japanese, I believe the best place to look is here (a guide to 316 points, I'm not aware of any better Japanese runs). http://alice.xfu.jp/wiki/wiki.cgi/sengoku?page=%A5%D7%A5%EC%A5%A4%B5%AD%CF%BF%2F%A1%FA%A3%B5%B1%EE%BB%A6%A4%B7%A5%EB%A1%BC%A5%C8316%C5%C0%A1%CAver1.03%A1%CB

If you're English only, here's the best points run on record that I know of in English (298 points) http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=37169 . Note however that the OP of this run has visited here before, and he has improved on it but he never posted the run (he joined us in thread #375), his current record is 305 points, here are his comments about his 298 points run:

"I've re-upped all pics to imgur and fixed the tags, so that old shitty 298 run can bask in mediocrity again. I would advise against any serious points running modeled from it, as it suffers from terrible misinformation sprinkled throughout, horrid routing, and a bunch of other mistakes. That said, it is a brain dead run with very little difficulty involved in reproducing it, thanks to relying on the initial footsoldier BP only, and not firing anyone until I recruit a tanuki warrior for a second BP, which means you have a large roster of giants for the rough early game, rather than having to skimp by on the few you don't fire and some shitty generics.

The 305 run I finished this fall is barely better, as while I improved the early game a fair amount (by taking the BP on Ai and a early captured footsoldier for a second BP, as well as a better reinforcements strategy than the previous Rizna one) and while I did manage an Orochi takedown, I'd forgotten several key aspects of good running, and fucked up Kiku's clear as well as not saving enough women in my prisons to round out my roster. That said, I also did learn how to game the erodiary so I can make sure to be on track for 300 women without needing to waste any fans on levies, so it might be worth me uploading for that and Orochi alone.

I was kind of burned out after that attempt, even though I'd gone into it fully expecting it to be a test run with lots of jagged edges, so I haven't started (and probably won't for at least awhile longer, as I'm in the middle of other projects/games etc. atm) work on an actual improvement I would feel proud of and comfortable to display. Still, I did have the foresight to use OBS to grab video data of the whole run anyway, and I guess I could put something together as a stop-gap measure. Commentating over video isn't going to be an instant process though, so don't expect the sort of snappy turnaround I was able to give you on rehosting those images."

>How many points do you think you could get if everything went perfectly?
"With the +6 points from clearing 3 more characters alone 305 becomes 311. Also worth noting I believe I had two fans unused on the final turn, so that counts for something. I can easily see shaving another couple turns by cleaning up the Orochi prep-work, better optimizing end-game clearing patterns, and random things along the way as well (avoiding Rance Attack, Elite Troops etc.). So, with my current route, 314, maybe 315 seems plausible.

Beyond that benchmark though, I would probably have to start incorporating a few of the ideas I've seen in the 316 and now the 322 plans, to be perfectly honest. It's hard to definitively say for sure, but that's what my gut is telling me. I need to abandon the Tebasaki ranch strategy I've been relying on, and do an early conquer of Tenshi and vassalize Akashi to cut down unproductive (pointwise, though decent SAT-wise) fans."

>Does it still seem pretty certain that 322 can't be beat?
"I've literally only just seen the link to the Chinese run this past weekend. nano, who had mentioned it to me previously, went MIA for a couple of years and I hadn't got the chance to see it until he showed back up. I can't read Chinese at all, and some of the things I see them doing initially seem questionable, and I would enjoy a more detailed explanation of their choices.

I'm definitely going to have to spend more time deciphering and studying what they were attempting before I can even begin to weigh in on whether they've reached the upper limit. I do have to say starting with Uesugi house is ballsy, but does save fans through start of turn events and war declaraion, full an entire point right there that I'd never even considered if my math checks out, but it definitely exacerbates the initial firing crunch you already have to deal with.

Additionally, a lot of their early game actions seem to have a heavy focus on clearing out a lot of the start-of-turn events ASAP, and frankly, proper start-of-turn event optimization has always been one of my weakest points, and definitely can separate decent runs from great ones.

At first glance their Orochi team strategy looks absolutely atrocious as well, and I have no idea how they pulled that off. It might be down to the wire, no-damage-wasted, which is probably RNG hell. That said, I only gave it a quick pass so far.

In short, I have no idea, and I wish I had a better answer for you."