[Finalgenesis]

I'll forgo the short answer...

The long answer:

I'll lay out the analysis and hopefully can help you see what to consider when facing certain things and arming gears on thugs and SCs in general.

Offense
-Clockwork has prot 18, 5 hp. So any hits doing 23 dmg will kill them. Since Golem has 25 str, any weapon with non-negative dmg they use will kill clockwork in 1 hit, therefore dmg on weapon is not a consideration. They have defense 10, so any attack 12+ can usually hit them, 14 or more is best.

-They are a swarm type, size 1 and really packs together. If you can find so some way to do AoE that would be ideal.

-Unfortunately they are quadra elemental immune, so ice and fire brand area damage won't affect them at all. The damage will only come from the phyiscal attack itself.

-What other ways are there to do AoE? a) trample. b) non-elemental AoE. That means either stymphian (Ouch, Super expensive in cbm 1.7), boots of behemoth (5E!), or midget smasher. Lets just drop midget smasher, it's not usable in this situation (or most situations) for obvious reasons.

-Trample also happens to be AP attack, cutting clockwork prot to 9, and its low hp together makes them very trample worthy.

-The cost efficent method is therefore behemoth boots, 5E. Note that trample can be a mixed blessing, as instead of attacking you will always trample something smaller. Since trample does more damage based on size difference, and golem is size 5, 2-4 size elite troops with high armor/defense (defense can dodge trample) can be quite resilient to trample and mess up your golem, where magic weapon will do better vs them. When you face size 5-6 you will use normal attack.

-Trample dedicated unit can also use dual shield without much problem... until they face something same or larger size then them, then they die unless they can kill it with a stupid kick.

-The other method is laying out multiple attacks a turn, which is less optimal vs swarms but better vs elite/thugs/SCs, a more balanced style if you would. Your choices are sword of quickness, serpent kryss ...etc or gladiator glove if you are willing to risk going without shield for some fist of the north star action. Boots of quickness should be added for optimal multi-attack style. Horned helm is another extra attack you can add, which is doubled by quickness. Though if you swap out astral cap you lose teleport, so I probably wouldn't.

Defense
-Clockworks only do 16 dmg per hit, non-magical.

-Therefore prot 20+ (22+ optimally), ethereal, luck are ideal.

-Defense don't matter too much, each hit on you gives you -2 def penalty in the same turn, and these small swarms of clockwork lays out dozens of hits on you a turn, a 4 def difference is only 2 more hits you dodge out of dozens of winging blades. prot and eth/luck is therefore the better way to go, swing for defense only after you take care of those and as a bonus.

-Beware fatigue increases the rate they score critical hits (bypass prot), so watch you buffing, I'd say just luck and ethereal is optimal, but try to keep fatigue to 19 or under when you can. The astral cap is good here as it cuts down fatigue from casting S spells. Heavier armor do give you higher fatigue for casting spells. Good thing golem don't have to worry about fatigue for actual fighting. I might throw in a girdle just to fix the buff fatigue (not like you don't have misc slots to spare vs AI) and improving anti-thug/SC power at the same time, you may want AMA if enemy likes to span disintegrate. But anyway...

-You will have to consider actual armor on prot value and maybe encumb value (it still affects your casting fatigue). If cold resist is not a concern I'll just pull out the stops and go with stone armor as it also covers your head armor weakness (starshine cap isn't exactly for prot...), the +6 casting fatigue is tough though (but most higher prot armor gives +4 - +8 anyway, exception being the dragon and silver stuff, dragon can fill in missing elem resist too).

Mobility
-Astral cap gives teleport capacity, pretty standard on raider/para-commando golem.

-If you opt for extra attack in horned helm (-2 def) and went with quick boots, styphalian wings might actually be worth it to give you some mobility back (not as good as teleport... but damn good still). but trampling don't mix well with multi-attack style, it does cover small and big units (but not elite units smaller then you are), you might as well focus purely on multi-attack in that case for better cost focus and effectiveness.

That's the short analysis of it for AI only, without considering facing human opponents, indepth multi-units consideration, enemy caster support (I did put a little there) ...etc. Hope this helps.