I found one in my last game.  Mine came from a token and it has no turn limit.  It is very strong in the early-game (and I found mine on turn 6 or so).  But I'm not sure it would give me that big an edge in the mid to late game.  Probably shouldn't be findable in level 0 adventure locations though . . .

Those are the least of your issues I promise you. Some of the late game monsters will give you pause even if you have a huge army and awesome channeler leading it!

Yup, it basically steamrolls the beginning, even more so than the nature's ally summon did when summoning was still available at the beginning of the game.

Unless you can finish off entire factions with just your sand golem and a soverign I don't really see the overpowered ness.

One, you're message didn't exist when I was reading the topic and typing the message.

Two, you killed off a faction on turn 12. You can do that with just your sovereign if you run into the AI that quick. They have at most one unit with 5 health guarding their cities. If anything at all. While their leader is off roaming around nearby. That's not a sand golem problem that's just a game balance problem.

Three, for the next example you used not only ONE sand golem. But TWO of them. That's some insane luck. You also had the help of two other units, that's a half stack of an army. Of course you're going to wipe out a faction that early no matter what's in your group. In either case you didn't win the game with just a sand golem and a sov like I earlier said.

I only found one early sand golem in 35% of my games D=

And once I encountered an enemy sov nearby with an air elemental  (>) Thought my Golem had a chance D=

Grasping at straws?  No, I just said that to irritate you.  It worked.    My post was no more important than the others adding their support to the OP, as I already stated.

Please don't try to derail the thread, it is about how overpowered the sand golem is, not about the AI.

They do appear to early for my taste, but oddly the only games I have found them in (approx 1/3) I always find 2-3 in short order, never just 1.

nowhere near as OP as the Dragon.

96damage 2times per turn to any target on the combat screen?

Go around with him attached to your sovereign w/organized + a shitload of movement buffs on your sovereign = can win any game

Oh, he also regens 2 mana per round

I always use the attack books on an archer hero.

I've only got the sand golem token once, but from the first few goodie locations I crossed in the game.  They do allow you to either steamroll an opponent early or quest freely, hauling in huge amounts of money.  By midgame, they're just so-so, and ended up as city defenders before too long. 

Best way to balance would be to have them only around for one battle or a turn limit.  They're nothing special at all outside the early game, so having them appear later seems silly to me.  Might save you a fraction of a gildar/turn in maintenance (do summons cost maintenance too?  hope not) as a garrison unit.