While I have used them a fair bit in TJC and thoroughly enjoy using them there, Vanilla Nomads is a different story. I have difficulty putting in a list without feeling it's role may be better served by either a Hellcat, Tomcat or a combination of a skirmisher and some Jaguars. Being that we are also only allowed one in Vanilla you can't have any redundancy in what is a high risk high reward piece (which normally isn't an issue for me). My assessment of it's role in Vanilla is that of hard flanker whose job it is to swing around behind an opponent's line and bully their weaker area's and create space for other pieces in the army to operate. It may also have some legs in Supplies and Capture and Protect but again other pieces may do it better. Am I incorrect in this assessment? How do you find it outside of TJC for those that have tried? And for the rest what are your theories?
Mimmetism BS12 Spitfire + Uberfalls and Morlocks: you can run an Impetuous phase that alternates clearing weak AROs with Smoke to cover against strong AROs. At that point Impetuous orders are basically just extra orders. BS12 Smoke LGL + Intruders or AD. Zondnautica are the only decent Smoke LGL in the game. This allows you to effectively get Smoke up the board rather than relying on Smoke in your own half. In particular Smoke + AD2 can be a huge combo. And that's before you get into how scary a suicide chain rifle that's paired with a real gun can be to stop.
For the reasons like below, I've been using them a lot, and have found out they are very effective even in Vanilla Nomads: 1. Selective Impetuous Order. You can choose to either spare its life or go aggressive, since it's not Ex. Impetuous like Morlocks. 2. One and only Smoke LGL option without SWC. In some cases, it's rather Order efficient in smoke-screening than other Smoke Grenade users, since it's +3 distance is 8-16. Combined with it's Imp. Order, it's quite useful. 3. One and only Hacker on Bike. According to the mission you are playing, AHD Zondnautica can mess with antennae or consoles in the middle of the table. With it's Smoke LGL, it can build safe mission area by itself. 4. Selective G:Synch remote with Chain Rifle can be a nice threat to CH users, or at least a nice cannon fodder against mines and Perimeter weapons. 5. In case of direct/indirect firepower with Spitfire, Hellcat might be a surprise element, but to me it feels like Zondcautica is a bit more cost-efficient since it has free Imp. Order, mimetism, and takes only 1 SWC, etc. Most of those are just its unique advantages, and for me, they are not Sectorial-sensitive.
@Tourniquet add to those missions how good the AHD is in Countermeasures or Unmaksing too. The speed makes the Zondnautica one hell of a trouble shooter when you need to do objectives spread across the map.
Hmm. Here Are my thoughts. If I’m playing vanilla nomads, its because I want to leverage the shooting power of an intruder and/or a Kriza backed up by smoke and zeros and cheap specialists. While fun, this kinda list usually relies on long distance shooting. A zondnautica would give me a first turn attack piece to quickly move up and around the board to start clearing order monkeys and skirmishers. It’s not as hardy as a su-Jian, but it’s close enough to duplicate the role. So in that role I could see it working well.
Though not a Zondnautica I've used an FO Maverick to really dominate in Supplies, that 8-4 MOV and specialist status is really good not just for getting to and opening boxes, but also for getting the boxes back to your DZ and passing them to sturdier units. Fast movement is a frequently under-rated ability IMO because it can't be mathed out, but speed saves orders and allows plays that otherwise wouldn't be possible.
They are a great Data Tracker in for instance Transmission Matrix (if you are not taking the Hacker). Fast, Non-Hackable, Smoke, good shooting. Can get you the 3 points.