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[Warlord255]

Yes, but they do so typically as immigrants into a nearby city or village. An entire tribe finding a nice spot and settling down is AFAIK unheard of. At the very least because they haven't got a clue about farming. In the vast, empty DF environment that would mean there are no nomad groups left in year 2 anyway.

Their role in trade is bridging difficult terrain. You can fit quite a lot on a camel or a mule. There are plenty of nomadic peoples who lugged along tea kettles, rugs and lots of jewelry in history?

That role, presently, is unnecessary, as the only hindrances to trade are completely secluded valleys and islands.

[Neonivek]

"An entire tribe finding a nice spot and settling down is AFAIK unheard of. At the very least because they haven't got a clue about farming."

Actually it isn't unheard of... in fact it is considered one of the requirements for the development of a civilisation.

What happens is a Tribe will find a location where there is enough food that they don't ever need to move around. If they chose to settle there they may find that the land cannot support their increased size too well.

They either develop agriculture, die out, or move on.

Or not too uncommon is they will form pernament dwellings but never develop agriculture or hortoculture.

There were a lot of nomadic groups that would settle in a place for a little time and then move on.

Yeah it is hard for me to really consider them Nomads, Semi-Nomad makes a lot more sense to me. Since for the most part they did create long-term settlements... They just didn't dwell in them for an entire year.

They could form trade because they weren't limited to just the shirts on their backs. In fact many Native Americans did develop Hortoculture (And possibly Agriculture... but I don't know as I only learned about Native American Government).

[Craftling]

Having some goblins go on major killing spree would definitely have to feature in legends and it might completely wipe out the elves from the world.
That would be awesome

[Tigershark13]

*puts on his archaeologist hat*

okay from a recent lesson on this very subject.

Nomads often supported cities due to the fact they had most of the livestock (at least in the Sumerian era ect) they're often hated/feared by people (look at modern Iran) have very different customs ect, BUT they are very useful to the cities due to the fact they bring in resources from distant areas... so they're most useful purpose could be to bring in things that your forts site exploitation area (the bits you can physically get goods from) doesn't have, so if you have no volcano they bring obsidian ect ect.

Nomads do often trade for what they need for what a city needs, so if a city needed say flint (which wasn't uncommon in some parts of the world) the Nomads would go to one of their areas, collect that by trading for what that area needed, and then return to the other city, sell them that good in exchange for what they might need but are unable to produce for themselves (more advanced weapons for example).

Its rare that a nomadic people ever grow large enough to attempt a full scale war and conquering of a urban based nation, (though it does happen) its more often small scale skirmishes in the town due to religious differences (once again modern Iran is a good example of this, the revolutionary guard often come into conflict with the nomads there due to different interpretations of Islam) or just the fact its in human nature to distrust that which is different, especially if they appear in a large group.

converting this into DF terms could be difficult, but different areas produce different kinds of livestock ect, doable...

And on the farming comment, just because someone chooses not to do something, doesn't mean they can't, in general, farming is much harder work than hunting/raising livestock, but its a safer way to live due to the fact food is far more likely to come. Its all circumstance.