Grease My Palms by @Thorvald (El Thorvaldo)

My 30th submission to DYOS VI.

This being the pre-Consulate era, wars had a tendency to degenerate into LOLNOPE back-and-forthing, most notoriously between @GenMarshall and Stylesrj from DYOS 5 onward. Seeing my glorious repulsion of the Golden Horde rebuffed without much of a second thought, I naturally decided to skip the meta-fight, and promptly folded. (In a subsequent cartoon, Khan did take the counter-offer.)

This was about the time in Stylesrj's plot line Mjcommie was mind-controlled; with Richtofen on site at the time, he was cut off from his troops, hence the impromptu cease-fire. Poncho magazine is a reference to the Canadian radio comedy group The Frantics' Red Baron sketch, although it wasn't fresh in my memory when I wrote this and the line I was actually aiming for was "Gent, Home of the D-cups". The German general was never given a name, and when I first dug up the photo I didn't think to confirm since I figured I could just find it again as needed. Seven years on, I can no longer find said photo. He's evidently an officer of distinction, yet try as I might, I cannot figure out who he is.

Fun fact: The dashing pirates seen in this and future comics (and the broad-hatted musketeers in the RoN shots) are actually bandeirantes, members of the Portuguese slaving and exploration parties that played a strong influence in Portugal's expansion into Brazil. I was introduced to them through RoN; once again, computer games have taught me more than the school textbooks ever did.

Rise of Nations © Big Huge Games.

[Originally submitted to DeviantArt May 2013.]