Happy New Year, may your marauding be prosperous in 2013! To celebrate the New Year we’ve got Bomb Trucks for sale on the Black Market. You can get four Bomb Trucks for only three Gems! The offer stands until the end of January 1st!

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Be careful with your new Bomb Trucks though. <a href="http://www.isotx.com/?p=4961"><span style="color: #ff9900;">As we have written before</span></a>, the Bomb Truck is a double edged sword in your army. While proper use of these volatile units can let you control your adversary’s movement, indirect fire at your Bomb Truck can wipe out part of your army pretty fast.

Are you ready for some explosive fun? Wish your fellow captains a happy New Year by destroy their force with your arsenal of Bomb Trucks. Share your war stories and tactics <a href="http://forums.isotx.com/showthread.php?5878-Explosive-fun-say-it-with-a-Bomb-Truck&p=39583#post39583">here</a>. The funniest and most clever anecdotes will be featured on this blog!

Watch the video <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRZxrQpmkXg&feature=youtu.be">here</a>

With snow threatening the skies of Atelia, the large, mopey looking snow hoppers are becoming a big problem for airship crews. Every year, just after Christmas, these rabbit-like creatures sneak aboard your ship in search of a warm, cosy bed.

<a href="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/HellRabbits.jpg"><img src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/HellRabbits.jpg" alt="" title="HellRabbits" width="520" height="440" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-5422" /></a>

One wouldn’t be such a big deal. There are tales of a Marauder captain who kept a snow hopper as pet. One is fine, because the real problem with these things is their breeding habits. Airships are dry and have food aplenty, and scientist believe that the electrical wiring of airships is somehow beneficial to the snow hoppers' reproduction rate. It is said that is why they like to chew on cables, but what exactly turns them on so much is unknown.

Is your airship infested with these creatures as well? Best head for a more tropical climate. For obvious reasons these things only stay inside during the cold winter months. As soon as they feel a little bit of warm sun, they’ll hop right out of your ship.

Primarily composed of foreigners hailing from places even further afield than southern Fahrong or the eastern edges of Karthonie, the Cordon Pirates are known for launching raids on lightly defended merchant convoys with their customized vehicles. Cordon Pirate vehicles are almost always Assault Archoses or Savar Tanks, chosen for their speed. Before they use them, the Cordon Pirates will add extra armor plating and improve internal systems to allow the vehicles to fire their weapons more rapidly. A variety of adjustments are made to the engines, mostly to accommodate the new armor plating without any loss of speed.

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The most distinctive decorative feature of their vehicles is the ‘Eye of Beyda’. The Cordon Pirates do not follow established religions like Trithinism or Iperon, but neither are they atheists like the people of Rahmos. Most people assume that they follow some strange religion that the foreign members of the Cordon Pirates brought with them from their homes, but they never speak of their faith to outsiders, so no-one knows for sure. The eye is related to some form of trickster god, who is skilled at identifying the weaknesses of a person and exploiting them mercilessly. The Cordon Pirates aim to do the same, targeting the weak who cannot fight back, while avoiding the strong.
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/cordon-pirate2.png"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-5415" title="cordon pirate" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/cordon-pirate2-1024x576.png" alt="" width="614" height="346" /></a></p>
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While the Cordon Pirates will not work as mercenaries, many marauders who defeat them in battle will try and fix their damaged vehicles and take them for their own, since the Cordon Pirate vehicles are a little better than equivalent marauder vehicles of the same type. In this way, Captains can find these vehicles to hire themselves, though the crew won’t be real Cordon Pirates.

Did you all have fun opening the Advent packs? Farlix has decided to throw in an extra gift on Christmas Day (December 25th)! Make sure you login to see what Farlix and Cinnamon got you.

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If you’ve missed any of the Advent packs, don’t worry. On Boxing Day (December 26th) all the Advent packs will be available on the Black Market, with at 0.00 UPC the first Advent pack, at 1.00 the second, at 2.00 the third etc. When you buy the Advent pack it will immediately open.

Lately the ISOTX team has really been growing. Despite the fact that two interns are leaving us today, we also have five new additions!

First we say goodbye to the interns:
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<strong><span style="color: #cccccc;">Noa</span></strong>
“After having spent 4 months at ISOTX, Utrecht’s best and most fun game company, I can genuinely say that I had an awesome time here. The people are great, a bit weird sometimes, but great! I don’t think I could’ve picked a better place for my internship. There’s so much I’ve learned about 3D art, texturing, not clicking any random links people send you on Skype etc. Sadly my 4 months of internship are over, and I need to start focusing on my exams. I’m sure going to miss everyone around here, and I want to thank everyone for everything they’ve done for me, so that I was able to improve my 3D skills. I wish you all the best of luck with all the upcoming ass kicking games you’ll be making! And I hope to see you all again some time :)”

<strong><span style="color: #cccccc;">Ruben</span></strong>
“About 4 months ago I started my 3D internship at ISOTX. Time has gone way too fast, because today is already my last day at the most awesome game company ISOTX! Such a strange thing time can go this fast :( In the last 4 months I have learned a lot of awesome things about 3d modelling and texturing. And after my holiday I'm going to use it all to graduate :D I want to thank everyone at ISOTX for his/her hard work to make me a better 3D artist. Best of luck with all the awesome games you are making and thanks for the awesome time you guys gave me here!”
<p style="text-align: left;">And give a warm welcome to:
<a href="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/DSC04682.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-5381 aligncenter" title="DSC04682" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/DSC04682.jpg" alt="" width="520" height="347" /></a></p>
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong>Martijn</strong></span>
“Joining ISOTX was an amazing opportunity for me to work with a small and ambitious team. Since I have worked with much larger teams in the past, my first weeks with ISOTX have been hectic, challenging and fun; with ample opportunity to really put something personal into my work. My colleagues are enthusiastic, competent and a genuine fun bunch to work with and spend some time with after hours. In short, like any small but good game studio there is hard work ahead and a good deal of passion and fun along the way.”

<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong>Kitty</strong></span>
“New Work, New Studio, New Adventures”

<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong>Stefan</strong></span>
"My first week has really flown by. It's great being here, there's a great atmosphere with wonderful, skilled and talented people, who also happen to be very nice, well most of them ;). It's awesome to be working here and be part of the team!"

<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong>Anna</strong></span>
“They say times flies when you are having fun, and that is exactly how I feel about my first three weeks at the ISOTX office. Everyone is very kind and they made me feel welcome from the very first day. I’ve noticed that the people here are very involved and committed to the company and that makes it a great place to work! I am enjoying ‘working’ again thus so far, so good!”

<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong>Kenneth</strong></span>
“As the new QA guy, I couldn't have picked a better time to join team ISOTX. 2013 is going to be an exciting year for ISOTX, with a lot of cool new games in development. And I'm one of the first people who gets to to try them all out!”

But we've added some nice apocalyptic avatar stuff to <a href="http://igmarauders.isotx.com/game.php?/avatar/">the store</a>! Check out this preview:

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Just four more days until Christmas! The Holiday Sale has started! You can <a href="https://igstore.isotx.com/IGM_Default.aspx">buy Gems</a> with a nice discount! If you haven’t played <a href="http://igwarlord.isotx.com/COOP_Game_Home/tabid/36/language/en-US/Default.aspx">Iron Grip: Warlord</a> yet, this is your chance, since the game is really cheap!
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ChristmasVaultPromotion4Blog01.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-5355 aligncenter" title="ChristmasVaultPromotion4Blog01" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ChristmasVaultPromotion4Blog01.jpg" alt="" width="388" height="331" /></a></p>
Have you collected all your <a href="http://www.isotx.com/?p=5191">Advent Packs</a> so far? Farlix and Cinnamon have been most generous this year.

Wake up, it’s your turn to help the babies of the world! As you’ve already seen on the blog, last weekend the ISOTX team did a 48 hour game jam and we made it! You can play Record Request <a href="http://seriousrequest.3fm.nl/game">here</a>. As you can see the game is inspired by Pac-Man.

<img src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ISOTX_3fm_seriousRequestGame04.jpg" alt="" /><br />

The money we collect with this game goes to the Red Cross, which is fighting to lower the mortality rate of babies in this world. If you’ve got something to spare, please play our game and donate!
If you finish the game you automatically get the option to donate, but you can also donate from the main menu.

It was all Legolas’ idea. Every year 3FM, a Dutch public radio station, organizes <a href="http://seriousrequest.3fm.nl/">3FM Serious Request</a>. Three DJs of the station lock themselves in a house made of glass to raise money for the Red Cross. For six days they go without food and only drink special smoothies. Inspired by the sacrifice the DJs make each year, Legolas wanted to do something as well. He decided on a 48 hour game and the radio station loved it!

Serious Request was first held in 2004 and inspired many similar initiatives all over the world.

Iron Grip: Marauders’ latest update provided the sky pirates with a mysterious new unit: the GRAV. Players were suddenly confronted with this new army vehicle in combat, but didn’t know yet what it does.

The GRAV is the special offer on the Black Market this sunday. Get this powerful all-rounder and <a href="http://forums.isotx.com/showthread.php?5844-Freaky-Friday-%96-part-2-What%92s-that-unit-doing&p=39330#post39330">post your tactics on the forum</a>!

Check out these screenshots:
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