Let’s take a look at collection items: by now some of them will have appeared after doing quests, raids or smuggling missions and you might be wondering what exactly to do with them!

<a href="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/anchorpoint_newshops.png"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3181" title="anchorpoint_newshops" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/anchorpoint_newshops.png" alt="" width="519" height="353" /></a>

Head over to the Collection Trader in Anchorpoint where Alesta opened a brand new shop. Alesta accepts all kinds of collection items and will exchange Gold or Iron for them. But what if you are still missing some all-important items or you would like to sell off a few others?

In that case you can now visit Trader’s Bay (previously known as “Mortt’s Pub”). The Trader’s Bay chat room is available for all marauders to offer and request collection items!

Good luck gathering collection items and earning some additional resources!

<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/jfoYQaovQWs" frameborder="0" width="560" height="315"></iframe>

The nomads of Atelia have a long tradition of mounted combat. Nomad Riders used to be a common sight in the wilds of east Kathos, before the mining companies came. They used to fight with spears, javelins, and sometimes lances. While deadly against infantry, the armored cars and tanks of the mining company guards were impervious to this kind of attack.

<a href="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Atelian-Riders_large.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3359" title="Atelian-Riders_small" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Atelian-Riders_small.jpg" alt="" width="520" height="290" /></a>

Click on the image above to enlarge.

After several bloody defeats, some of the more innovative nomad tribes decided to try and use the tools of the mining companies against them. Groups of Nomad Riders took bundles of explosives (stolen from supply trucks or storage sheds) for use in battle. As with the Mounted Bombers in Kathos, they were devastatingly effective against the unprepared guards. On top of this, the Nomad Rider mounts are much tougher than horses. Though they don’t quite move as fast, but their thick hides make them far more survivable, giving the riders plenty of time to blow apart nearby foes.
<h3><span style="color: #ff9900;">Black Market Weekend Special</span></h3>
<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3357" title="specialDeal_Banner_Triplex" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/specialDeal_Banner_Triplex.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="229" />

This weekend we have a very special offer for you on the Black Market. On Sunday you can treat yourself to a Triplex Box which contains three things: this could mean resources but also licensed units! Now that’s a really special deal!

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3333" title="tournamentBanner02" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/tournamentBanner02.jpg" alt="" width="520" height="282" />

Are you a first mate, or an airship captain? Do you have balls of steel to prove your worth in battle? Then sign up for the brand new 100 Gem Tournament!

There will be 64 positions open for players to join. If you win your round, you will advance to the next round and receive an opponent for your next battle.

Entry Fee: 5000 Iron
<h3><span style="color: #ff9900;">Start and Ending Times</span></h3>
The Tournament will start Friday February 24th at 19:00 GMT, which means you have two full days to sign up! Each Round lasts exactly 24 hours, which means your battle needs to be completed within that time. Because our game is played worldwide and your opponent may live in a different time-zone, please contact your opponent and agree on a time to start your battle.

We will be hosting the rounds during the weekend for your accommodation:

Round 1: February 24 at 19:00 GMT until February 25 at 19:00 GMT
Round 2: February 25 at 19:00 GMT until February 26 at 19:00 GMT
Round 3: February 26 at 19:00 GMT until February 27 at 19:00 GMT

Round 4: March 2 at 19:00 GMT until March 3 at 19:00 GMT
Round 5: March 3 at 19:00 GMT until March 4 at 19:00 GMT
<h3><span style="color: #ff9900;">The Final</span></h3>
Round 6: March 4 at 19:00 GMT until March 5 at 19:00 GMT

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3268" title="Colosseum" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Colosseum.jpg" alt="" width="520" height="440" />
<h3><span style="color: #ff9900;">Tournament Rules</span></h3>
You will be playing with a standard Unit Pool from which you can select the units you prefer. You will not be using any units from your inventory. The pool is balanced and you will be choosing from the same pool every round (losses have no impact on your unit choice in future rounds).

Any cheating or trolling is completely forbidden and may result in your immediate removal from the tournament. Please note that closing the battle window during your turn ends your turn. If you close the battle window twice during your turns you will lose your match.

If a battle didn't finish before the round ends, the victory depends on the deployed units left in the game. If everything is an exact draw, we flip a coin.

<a title="Tournament Rules Sticky" href="http://igmarauders.isotx.com/game.php?/hero&amp;id=759553" target="_blank">For extra details on the Tournament Rules please check our Forum</a>.
<h3><span style="color: #ff9900;">Tournament Prizes</span></h3>
First Place: 100 Gems
Second Place: 25 Gems
Third &amp; Fourth Place: 10,000 Gold

As a special once time gift, we will send a copy of our official Strategy Guide for free to all the players who lose the first round, they might need it!

This is our first live tournament, so if you have any remarks or suggestions for us we are very happy to receive them at: tournaments@isotx.com.

&nbsp;
<h2>Explosive Weekend Competition Results</h2>
We would like to thank all the participants of the recently ended EXPLOSIVE Weekend Competition for their excellent submissions of amazing, funny or crazy Bomb Truck screenshots!

The winner is: Stitchfan! Congratulations you have won 10,000 Gold!

Here is the winning entry:

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3334" title="winning_stitchfan" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/winning_stitchfan.jpg" alt="" width="656" height="1509" />

In our previous <a title="Feature Friday: Crazy Deals!" href="http://www.isotx.com/?p=3298" target="_blank">Blog Post</a> you saw another image related to the new region, Atelia. Some of you have posted their guesses but none of them got close enough!

Here is another piece of the puzzle:

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3309" title="picture01" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/picture01.jpg" alt="" width="520" height="219" />

What's your guess now? Post it on <a title="Iron Grip: Marauders Forums" href="http://igmarauders.isotx.com/forums/showthread.php?p=31012#post31012" target="_blank">our Forums</a>!

The latest patch has brought many new features and alterations in the game! Not all of them were expected and this is something we are deliberating about internally. We hear what you are saying about the changes; and the more opinions the better, so please keep discussing! For our part, we will be announcing many more changes and not just new features, for the coming patches.

Some of the recent changes might seem crazy and while I admit we are a little crazy, the changes have been made for several reasons: first of all to balance the game so that various upcoming features can be put in place and secondly to ensure that we can continue to provide you with new features for this game for as long as we possibly can.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3299" title="specialDeal_Banner_BaronBazookas_01" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/specialDeal_Banner_BaronBazookas_01.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="229" />

Here’s something new already! This weekend we will have a crazy one-time offer: Baron Bazookas! Now that the bug causing the AI to spawn too many units is resolved, it’s time to get revenge! How better to go about revenge than to add one of these villains into your own marauder army and hit the Baron where it hurts!

<center><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3300" title="baronH" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/baronH.jpg" alt="" width="401" height="398" /></center>
<h3>Teaser for Atelia:</h3>
Also, here is another piece of the Atelian Puzzle, can you guess what it is?

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3301" title="picture02" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/picture02.jpg" alt="" width="520" height="219" />

Last week we announced Atelia, the brand new region, and you saw a picture of Baggerstown. We also told you about a new hero who’s on the way. And what were you expecting? Another male hero perhaps? But we have plenty of male heroes already!

Okay… how about this?!

<center><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3291" title="ladyheresh_01" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/ladyheresh_01.jpg" alt="" width="396" height="385" /></center>
What kind of abilities do you think she will have?

On a different note, check out the amazing ad we had in the middle of our town to promote Marauders!

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3292" title="VideoWall_01_small" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/VideoWall_01_small.jpg" alt="" width="520" height="694" />Last week we announced Atelia, the brand new region, and you saw a picture of Baggerstown. We also told you about a new hero who’s on the way. And what were you expecting? Another male hero perhaps? But we have plenty of male heroes already!

Okay… how about this?!

<center><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3291" title="ladyheresh_01" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/ladyheresh_01.jpg" alt="" width="396" height="385" /></center>
What kind of abilities do you think she will have?

On a different note, check out the amazing ad we had in the middle of our town to promote Marauders!

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3292" title="VideoWall_01_small" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/VideoWall_01_small.jpg" alt="" width="520" height="694" />

ISOTX wishes you all a happy Valentine’s Day! Today we have discovered a unique offer in the <a title="Black Market Valentine Deal" href="http://igmarauders.isotx.com/game.php?/blackmarket" target="_blank">Black Market Special Deal</a>: it’s a mysterious Crate!

We suspected Joaquin was behind it, so we took him in for questioning. He claimed that he just wanted to spread his love. He can be such a tease!

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3281" title="joaquin_box" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/joaquin_box.jpg" alt="" width="520" height="250" />

The crates are like a box of chocolates, he says, you never know what you're gonna get!

The Tournaments Patch is here at last, and it’s filled with brand new features for Iron Grip: Marauders! First and foremost you will be able to compete in frequently organized tournaments, the ultimate form of Player vs Player competition, for diverse prizes: units, resources, special avatar items or even real money! Only tactical skill will determine the victor!

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3268" title="Colosseum" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Colosseum.jpg" alt="" width="520" height="440" />

But there’s more!

The PvP system has various new additions, such as a several new settings, Training mode, Hardcore mode and the prevention of players reloading the battle screen.

In the world map you can now visit Captain Kolo, who sets up unusual battles for his wealthy friends to place bets on. He needs people to take on his strange challenges, and he’s happy to pay good sums to Marauders who can win these battles against the odds. These battles will be unlike anything you’ll have done before!

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3269" title="Captain_Kolo_small" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Captain_Kolo_small.jpg" alt="" width="520" height="360" />

When you return to Anchorpoint, go take a look at the Collections Trader to see which items you need to collect before you can trade them in for resources, and stop by the Perk Store to treat yourself to some boosts such as increased experience, production, research or energy!

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3270" title="collection01_4Blog" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/collection01_4Blog.jpg" alt="" width="520" height="333" />

Stay tuned for when we are live again, we will post the link to the changelog!

Up until now you have all been bravely fighting amidst the chaos of instable Kathos, scavenging and slowly building independent Marauder armies. You are the scum of the earth, and the frequent attacks on bosses prove there’s not enough room for all of you.

So it is time to brave the frontier and head into Atelia! The image you saw yesterday is one of the places in Atelia, called Baggerstown. It is a giant floating platform which used to be used for mining.

There will be numerous features coming with this new region:
<ul>
<li>A brand new quest giver</li>
<li>New and unique units</li>
<li>New terrain art</li>
<li>A new hero to be obtained</li>
<li>And much more…</li>
</ul>
<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3258" title="Atelian_rider1" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Atelian_rider1.jpg" alt="" width="520" height="377" />

Here is your next sneak preview image!

Stay tuned over the coming weeks as we bring you more details!

Thanks to Markey's request to feature some brand new artwork, we decided to show you a teaser for something coming up in Iron Grip: Marauders, can you guess what it is?

<a href="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/r02_big4Blog.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3244" title="r02_small4Blog" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/r02_small4Blog.jpg" alt="" width="520" height="355" /></a>

<a title="Guess What It Is" href="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/r02_big4Blog.jpg" target="_blank">Click to enlarge the image</a>.