Golems: how do I make them work?

[Zenzei]

Hi!

I've read some guides and AARs and many of them mention using the golems, construction 7, in later stages of game. So I went off to test the clay dudes in sp and got mixed feelings as a result. Here's how I see the golem and what I tried with them.

Pros:
-high hp
-high strength
-mindless & lifeless
-fire & poison immune
-zero encumberance
-S2 mage

Cons:
-hopeless attack & defense
-low protection
-low APs
-no access to regeneration

In all of the following tests earth 9 bless was used.

Experiment 1: the normal thug/sc attempt
At first I tried setting up a golem sc.

Stuff: frost brand, charcoal shield, starshine skull cap, shrouds of battle saint, boots of quickness, amulet of antimagic, burning pearl.
Script: body ethereal, personal luck, astral shield, magic resistance, attack closest.
Result: disaster. The golem died in his third battle against some chafftacular mictlan troops. It got ganged and killed regardless of my efforts to improve the golem's defenses.

Experiment 2: trampling golem thug
This time I dismissed weapons altogether and tried to leverage the golems size and high strenght via boots of behemoth.

Stuff: vine shield, shield of gleaming gold, starshine skull cap, shrouds of battle saint, boots of behemoth, amulet of antimagic, bracer of defense.
Script: body ethereal, personal luck, astral shield, magic resistance, attack closest.
Result: this wasn't actually terrible, but it didn't convince me either. Because of the low action points, the trampling was slooow.

Experiment 3: tempest golems
My third attempt was much like the second one but I added a communion to cast astral tempest. The golem force included six slaves and one master.

Stuff (slaves): starshine skull cap, shrouds of battle saint, boots of behemoth.
Stuff (master): starshine skull cap, robe of etherealness, boots of behemoth, crystal matrix. I also packed some clam of pearls in order to not to have to reload for tempest.
Script (slaves): communion slave, body ethereal, paralyze, paralyze, attack closest.
Script (master): astral tempest, personal luck, astral shield, magic resistance, attack closest.
Result: this totally crushed all opposition but it costs a lot of gems and I have no idea of its effectiveness, or lack of it, in actual multiplayer game. This was a blast to use though!

As a general note I really liked the skull cap because it enables teleport. Shrouds + E9 bless also felt very good since it gave nice boost to prot without lowering APs and reinvigoration was excellent in erasing fatigue caused by spellcasting.

I would appreciate if some more experienced players could tell me if I'm doing it wrong and/or share some of their golem setups/strategies.

Thanks.