Trope-a-Day: Clockwork Creature

Clockwork Creature: Due to the effects of relatively low population and slow population growth on the economics of the eldrae, they invented varieties of robotics remarkably quickly.  The first generation was exactly this; clockwork automata to perform a whole variety of functions.  Although it took exactly as many years as you might think before anyone was putting tiny Babbage-engine (sorry, Stannic cogitator) brains into them.