I think the Nomads are really underrated -
particularly in the Hive (which I'll circle back to). People just give the opinion of Necromunda influencers too much credence instead of experimenting with the gang themselves.
It's true that in the Ash Waste campaigns they are somewhat under powered, but the way people talk about them you'd think they were totally unplayable. They're a gang built around not having vehicles in a vehicle based campaign, of course you need to be a bit clever about how to use them. They can absolutely square up with other gangs if you use the weather and terrain to your advantage. Picking off soft targets and forcing the enemy to bottle is probably the best approach. Their heavy weapons are top-tier, their brute is awesome.
What I will say is that they struggle against gangs with a Cargo-8. Regular vehicles they can take on, but the Cargo-8 is basically indestructible. But guess what... basically no gang can damage that thing.
It's completely broken. The Nomads just feel that brokeness more than other gangs because they don't have a transport option to whisk them away from it.
The Cargo-8 aside, you just need to think about using finess and speed out maneuver your enemies and focus on soft targets, and the new book makes this much easier. For one there's a whole new ammo-type geared towards damaging vehicles (far more viable than praying for 6's on your shock weapons), as well as an area effect weapon that disables vehicles. But the Hunters are where it gets really interesting because (as far as I can tell)
they can be deployed 9" away from the enemy at the beginning of any round with no proviso around line of sight.
The possibilities for messing with your opponent are huge. There's the obvious approach of charging with versatile weapons. But there's also the fact that you can probably buy the hunters web pistols on the trading post. The tactics cards are where it gets really fun. Deploy a hunter and then use "Bait and Switch" to swap him out for your Anthromite Dune skuttler. Or use "seize the initiative" to garauntee they get to attack first. There are so many options.
Now in the Hive I keep hearing that Nomads are at a disadvantage because their Ash Waste specific attributes don't apply... I think this fundamentally misunderstands the point of their Ash Waste attributes. These are things designed to give an advantage vs vehicles.
In the Hive, Nomads actually square up fine against most gangs. Again they're not S-tier like Van Saar, but they are also far from being a write off like Helots. They have really solid base stats (including great cool and initiative), their basic weapons are awesome (juves can take blast carbines, gangers can take long rifles) and they have access to web which is one of the most powerful traits in the game. People have this idea that they're too expensive. This is only the case if you go hard on the heavy weapons. Not to mention their brute is amazing in the Hive. It's incredibly tough, hard to seriously injure, and has clamber. Its only weakness is honestly its poor cool, and that's easily fixed with a bit of XP. I'd say the Dune Skuttler is almost as good as the Piscean Spektor. I think the mistake people make is thinking they're an elite gang when they should really be run as a juve heavy shooty gang with 1-2 heavy hitters (e.g. the Chieftain and Dune Skuttler). And now with the new book you also have cheap pets with burrow and fly...
Anyway that's my essay on why Ash Waste Nomads actually rule and the new book will make them even better. People need to stop complaining that the Nomads aren't how they want them to be, and instead look at how they're actually designed to be played.
