That depends on you, our faithful players. Iron Grip: Marauders has been nominated for the Best Browser Game Awards. These are player’s choice awards, so your opinion matters to us! Do you think we are the best strategy browser game? <a href="http://contest.bbgsite.com/gameprize/2012/index.php?controller=game&action=index&id=2103">Vote for us!</a>

Iron Grip: Marauders has been nominated in the following categories: Best Strategy, Best 3D game and Best Graphics.

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Our raiding and ransacking must come to a pause, fellow captains. Yuletide is upon us and it’s a time for celebration and peace. I know. We all like ourselves a good run of pillaging and plundering, especially if we can kick a baron in the balls. However, I’ve had a good couple of months and I would like the share my spoils with all of you!

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I’ve set up a nifty system to distribute all my gifts among you. No, this doesn’t include me dropping down through the exhaust pipes of your airship. I don’t have any magical reindeer that can circle the world in one night, either. With the help of Alesta, I made an Advent Calendar to count the days until Christmas. Behind each door I’ve put a little surprise for you!

Merry Christmas!
Farlix

The Advent Calendar
In December the login bonus has been replaced with the Advent Calendar. Every day you login you’ll get a special Advent Pack. The Advent Calendar runs from December 1st to the 24th.

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Grenadiers are very tough units – and when used in large numbers they are powerful all round fighters, though they do better against vehicles than infantry. In fact, when up against a primarily vehicle force, they can even overcome anti-infantry vehicles like Terror Walkers and Baron Battle Walkers.

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Even in the aftermath of two Baron Battle Walker attacks, you can see that the Grenadiers in the top left (who had full health at the start of the AI turn) are not too badly injured, and still have three men. One of the things which makes Grenadiers so powerful against vehicles is the relative deployment costs. Grenadiers only use up 25 deployment, compared to something like a Terror Walker or Wheel of Doom, which cost 70 and 65. That’s almost three squads of Grenadiers for one Terror Walker – which will generally result in the Terror Walker being destroyed, and maybe one squad of grenadiers killed with another wounded.

The biggest threat to Grenadiers is basic infantry like Troopers (HMGunners will hurt them, but the HMGs are so weak that the Grenadiers will quickly destroy them if they get close). Of course, no real battle involves two types of units fighting each other in isolation – if you have Terror Walkers or even Troopers of your own to quickly eliminate enemy infantry, your Grenadiers should be able to do their deadly work.

Iron Grip: Marauders won the Dutch Game Award for Best Online Game! The judges were impressed by the game’s combination of impressive 3D tactical combat and innovative strategic MMO gameplay. At ISOTX HQ we are already celebrating our victory with cake and champagne!

This is the award:
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Proof that Iron Grip: Marauder is indeed the best online game!
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ISOTX celebrating
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Artillery Walkers are the bane of the existence of many marauders. The brain behind this nifty piece of technology is Professor Murray, the Baron of Vistorg. In his old age he mostly spends his time as a family man, financially supporting his sons in their attempts to thwart the pirates of Kathos. However, in his youth he had quite a dangerous life.

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As a child Murray already showed the potential to become a great engineer. One time when he got a toy car for his birthday, he remodelled it into an air ship within a day. From an early age he has always been interested in vehicles and how to improve them. Off course, during his childhood years this was just play for him. As he grew up his projects became larger. He would roam the scrap metal graveyards of the war and collect useful parts to build into something new. This got him the attention of the engineering department of the Rahmos army.

Recognizing his skill, they contacted him in secret. The intelligence agency of the Rahmos army gathered that the Confederation was working on state of the art technology for Walkers: huge robotic vehicles used to navigate the mountainous lands of Fahrong. They sent Murray on an undercover mission to a prominent Confederate University in Nallum.

Murray pretended to be a student at the University. This wasn’t very hard for him. He had a natural aptitude for engineering and loved to study. He graduated top of his class and went on to get his PhD and later his doctorate degree in engineering of war vehicles. After he became a professor, he returned to Kathos.

During his time at the University he had learned all the secrets of the Confederate Walkers, the greatest being their weak armour. Murray envisioned a machine that would be mobile, like the Walkers, yet sturdy and with plenty of firepower. In short, he wanted to create the ideal war machine. Many marauders have an intense hatred for these machines. What do you think? Are Artillery Walkers the ideal war machines?

Our American and Israeli colleagues had a bit more than just a Freaky Friday. This week they were in the Netherlands for a visit to the ISOTX HQ. What struck them most about Dutch culture? We know that the whole world thinks we walk around in clogs, are surrounded by mills and smoke pot. Obviously, that is not true. Can our foreign friends shed a bit of light on the real Holland?

We, the Dutch, love complaining about the weather. It is always too cold, too warm, too wet or too dry. Seeing as our guests are here in the fall, it is too cold right now! Michael remarked that is really weird that we think it is cold here. On the other hand Eyal, our Israeli college, is nearly freezing to dead. I guess complaining about the weather is a typical Dutch characteristic that foreigners catch on quiet fast!

<a href="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Sinterklaas_2007.jpg"><img class="alignright wp-image-5102" title="Sinterklaas" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Sinterklaas_2007-204x300.jpg" alt="" width="143" height="210" /></a>The country is getting excited about the impending arrival of Sinterklaas, a Dutch tradition that is a lot like the North American Santa Claus. Once a year he comes on a steamboat from Spain to give the children lots of presents. He enters the houses via the chimney and puts the gift in a shoe. Instead of fairies, he has Black Pete helping him and Rudolf has been replaced by Amerigo, his faithful white stead. Given all the excitement, Patrick expected everyone to be running around with black paint on their face. I guess no-one told him that the Black Pete isn’t painted black; it’s the charcoal from the chimney!

What do you guys think of our language? <a href="http://www.youtube.com/embed/tqSb41YWoIg">Dutch lesson</a>

Laura and Eyal think it’s weird. However, you have to be very careful how you reply to this. As Eyal experienced first-hand, we get offended if you compare it to German. Dutch sounds NOTHING like German!

Laura also pointed me to the fact that our toilet seats are cold. Personally, I’ve never missed that in my life, but now that she mentioned it, it would be really nice to have a toasty tush.
The Netherlands can also be really scary for visitors. See, we love riding bikes. Our country has more bikes than people; we have 16 million people and 19 million functioning bikes. Michael thinks it’s just stupid that you are at risk of being run over by a bike. Laura thinks pedestrians are in serious danger and Patrick claims to have had two near-death experiences while walking to the office. You know what the weirdest thing is, that I don’t consider biking dangerous at all. I’ve had over ten accidents and I can’t even begin to count the amount of times I almost got hit by a car, or almost ran over a pedestrian.

Marauders shake in their boots when they hear that the Duke of Torun has distributed another wanted poster. Who is this man, whose thirst for marauder blood seems insatiable? Of the Barons of Kathos, the Duke of Torun is amongst the most notorious.

The Duchy of Torun has always been the most influential political power in Kathos. Since the Rahmos invasion the dukes have desperately been trying to maintain some semblance of their former power. Torun was one of the first areas in Kathos that started collaborating with their new overlords. As a reward, the Duke of Torun is always the leader of the Kathos Security Authority, or KTA.

As leader of the KTA, Cassian Torun, the current duke, is responsible for criminal law enforcement in Kathos. Officially, the KTA is an independent Kathossian organization. But don’t be fooled. Cassian Torun is completely loyal to Rahmos and its associated police force. Unlike some of his predecessors, who passively accepted their new leaders, Cassian has worked closely with Rahmos officials in a bid to gain more power. Not that his forefathers would openly oppose Rahmos, it is more that they would let certain things slide. This is not an option with Cassian, as ambitious as he is.

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He rules the KTA with an iron fist and his subordinates fear him almost as much as the marauders do. His ruthlessness showed early on the job. He was in office for less than a year, when he got ten older and loyal officers from the KTA fired because, and I quote: “They have grown fat with laziness and I need young and smart people on the job.” Of course this move served his purpose. While these were indeed loyal officers, they were not vital to the KTA. But this display of power showed the rest of the KTA who was boss.

Ever since his early days as chief officer of the KTA, Cassian has been merciless in his pursuit of marauders. Rumours about blackmail and torture carried out by the KTA were quickly silenced. Cassian claims that crime has gone down in Kathos under his leadership, but critics believe that there has been little real change, and that marauders continue to outsmart the duke. What do you think?

The artists at ISOTX work tirelessly to create the impressive world in which you can be a scavenging sky pirate and an awesome marauder. Their visual inspiration is now gathered on Pinterest, <a href="http://pinterest.com/isotx/">allowing us to share our picture diary with you!</a>

The Iron Grip Universe is constantly evolving. Over the past few years we have focused on creating a dieselpunk alternate reality. The world is torn asunder by a war, not unlike our own Cold War. While in the real world the Cold War was the age of the Space Race and communist spies, the Iron Grip world places sky pirates and marauders throughout the devastation of war.

Iron Grip is often described as a steampunk world, but this is not strictly speaking the case. While we do draw a lot of inspiration from steampunk imagery, the technology level of Iron Grip is too high.

Consider this:
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A very easy trick to remember the difference is to think about what fuel is used by machines in the world. In Iron Grip we use diesel, just because it’s dirtier!

When you look at the dieselpunk style and compare it to the steampunk style you also see a definite difference in the historical period it’s inspired by. Steampunk really ties in with the Victorian Age and the American Wild West, while dieselpunk is more 1940s and both World Wars. So basically dieselpunk is science-fiction with the aesthetics of the 40s.

Lately, our artists have been focussing more on the World Wars. Obviously our machinery and war stuff has always been inspired by this, but with a twist. We are now going for realism within a historical framework, thus shifting our attention somewhat from our previous style. We’ll keep you posted on our plans! For now you can follow our visual journey on <a href="http://pinterest.com/isotx/">Pinterest</a>.

<a href="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/528112_478583682161312_56955830_n.jpg"><img class="alignleft wp-image-5060" style="margin-right: 15px;" title="528112_478583682161312_56955830_n" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/528112_478583682161312_56955830_n.jpg" alt="" width="260" height="278" /></a>ISOTX has welcomed many new crew members over the last few months. With the upcoming release of our iOS game and many other new titles in the near future, we can use all the help we can get! This week we’re introducing Roel. He started working for us about two months ago.

So, what’s your first impression of ISOTX?

<em>Fun! I get paid for what I like to do best, which is making technical art and other gaming stuff. If I didn’t work at ISOTX I would still do this. I especially like that I work in an environment that can best be described as a real life 4-chan.</em>

What do you do?

<em>I’m a level designer and technical artist. I’m currently working on Iron Grip: Sky Corsair for iOS. As a technical artist I make sure the game looks sharp. One of the most important aspects of my job is to make sure the game has the right feel, look and gameplay to fit the war-theme of the Iron Grip series. </em>

How did you get in the game business?

<em>As a child, I always wanted to develop games. That's why I got a bachelor degree in Game Design and Development at the College for Arts and Technology in Utrecht. For a year after I graduated I worked on other game projects, one of which was an iOS game. And now I get to do what I love best. </em>

What are your favourite games?

<em>Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and Batman: Arkham City are by far the best games in the world. I also really enjoy playing Iron Grip: Warlord, I downloaded it years ago. Much to my surprise it turned out to be an ISOTX game. Other favorites are Orcs Must Die and the first Half-Life. Right now I’m playing Dishonored, but that’s not really my thing.</em>

Iron Grip: Marauders has been nominated for a <a title="Dutch Game Awards" href="http://www.dutchgameawards.nl/2012/">Dutch Game Award</a>, the most prestigious game awards in the Netherlands. Lady Heresh will be joining us to celebrate this weekend. On Saturday and Sunday you can get a limited edition avatar of Lady Heresh.

<a href="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/igmarauders_lh_01.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-5050 alignleft" style="margin-right: 15px;" title="igmarauders_lh_01" src="http://www.isotx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/igmarauders_lh_01.jpg" alt="" width="224" height="189" /></a>

<a title="Baggerstown" href="http://www.isotx.com/?p=3346&amp;__hstc=74811469.9a5ceee0cf44ef5c1ea74e36d0ad16e5.1351847027576.1352218918247.1352370644837.9&amp;__hssc=74811469.2.1352375886947"> Baggerstown</a> might not be the place you would expect to find a lady, yet Lady Heresh has built her trade empire here. Apparently, rebels and scoundrels make for good costumers. Or perhaps the sad look in her beautiful eyes wins over the populace. Why is she sad, you ask?

Her birth parents left her on the streets of Baggerstown and her adoptive parents were murdered. Left alone in a cruel and cold world, she turned to what she knew best, the family business. Carrying supplies from Baggerstown to the surrounding settlements has been good business for Lady Heresh. But the pain and sorrow never really left her heart.

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This won’t stop her from having fun this weekend. She will lure you into the world of Baggerstown and show the time of your life. A little bit of warning, don’t ask about her name! Her adoptive parents thought it was a good idea to name her Lady. She’s very sensitive about it and it might very well end with her fist in your face. Also jokes about eating spaghetti with meatballs aren’t appreciated. Keep these warning in mind, and join us this weekend in celebration!