So, am I right in thinking that...

The basic idea of being nomadic on the strategic map -- wander around, sometimes hold cities for a while and sometimes don't -- is pretty infeasible. Well, it's no more feasible for the Saka Rauka than the Romani. You're meant to take regions and (try to) hold them. And you have to keep them for a while and do some building before you can get troops. Some of your government buildings have the word "nomad" in the name, but they pretty much let you build "herds" instead of "farms" as city improvements.

All you could do is take new places and let the old ones rebel or trade them away diplomatically, like players who do "migration" games, only do it lots of times.

[I think RTR7 will run on BI and have hordes. But it's a more centre-weighted map, it pays less attention to outer "barbarians" than EB and more to the middle.]