Golems: how do I make them work?

[Kuritza]

Ha, ha. Imho you just dont make them work as SC, they are thugs. With quickness etc you can bring Golem's low attack/defense to a decent level and use them as teleporting raiders, which can be damn effective sometimes (though expensive).
I had some fun with golems equipped with just starshine scullcap and eye of the void, scripted for soul slay. They accompanied my Helheim army - my national (or indie) mages couldnt cast soulslay, so my Golems were invaluable to me.
Also, they killed an Archdevil SC who tried to raid my lands. I dropped three golems on him, one of them with a lifelong protection to distract Archdevil with imps. SC removal is where Golems shine.

P.S.
The above poster summed it up very nicely.

[RonD]

If you're facing a lone SC (or an SC without too much backup army), there's always the old classic dom2 Golem:

2x Sword of swiftness
Starshine cap
Jade armor
Boots of flying
2x Stone bird

Two of these guys teleporting onto an SC foolishly left out in the open field somewhere can wreck your opponent's day.

Not as good as in dom2 of course, with no astral weapon, but they still work often enough to keep them in mind.

And my favorite (though obviously something you can't plan on every game):

Sickle Whose Crop is Pain
Shield of Gleaming Gold
Skullcap
Jade Armor
Flying boots
Whatever you want in misc slots

This guy turns all you barbarian attack events into 20-30 death gem events. He turns your neighbor's militia / zealot events into death gems (either with or without splitting the haul, depending on your relations).

He also often gets in the HoF. In one MP game "Super-Golem" had ~220 HP thanks to heroic toughness.

[Morkilus]

Gee, I thought the whole point of golems was to teleport them on top of fleeing sages and Lore Masters

[Baalz]

I've found boots of the behemoth work best for PD raiding (a thug's sweet spot). Something like charcoal shield, shield of gleaming gold, marble armor, boots of the behemoth, starshine cap. Script body ethereal, personal luck, attack. Teleport into your opponenent's back lands and stomp around avoiding armies - you should be able to wipe up almost any non-giant PD. If your opponent is likely to teleport a response team onto your golem (magic duel most likely) send him out with an astral pearl and after the first fight script returning - he'll be back at home and ready to teleport again the next turn. Can only attack every other turn, but virtually immortal if you're careful and you're taking enemy provinces at a cost of one teleport and one returning.

[Shovah32]

Just to clarify, I tend to use my Golems - including those equipped as I said - as teleporting raiders. My previous post was more of a basic improvement than how to turn Golems into full blown SCs.

[Zenzei]

Thanks for the replies guys, this is great advice. Indeed, my mistake was that I tried to use my golems for pretty much all the purposes Micah listed I shouldn't be using them for

But now that I've started to use them as raiders of lightly defended and hard to reach provinces they are working great! Can't wait to use them in mp.

As for the equipment, I hadn't realized,up until now, that marble armor gives additional protection as per stoneskin spell. I always viewed it as pretty sucktacular armor but obviously I was wrong. Very wrong. Heh.

[Jazzepi]

Zenzei said:
Thanks for the replies guys, this is great advice. Indeed, my mistake was that I tried to use my golems for pretty much all the purposes Micah listed I shouldn't be using them for

But now that I've started to use them as raiders of lightly defended and hard to reach provinces they are working great! Can't wait to use them in mp.

As for the equipment, I hadn't realized,up until now, that marble armor gives additional protection as per stoneskin spell. I always viewed it as pretty sucktacular armor but obviously I was wrong. Very wrong. Heh.

Marble armor is great! The nice part is that it effects your head as well as your chest, for a chest slot only item.

Jazzepi

[Shovah32]

Which is particularly useful on a skullcap wearing golem.