It doesn't require Consul IIRC, but bunch of features does depend on it, like service discovery and related stuff. But Nomad is totally usable without Consul for simpler setups.

They’ve now had nomad-native services without consul for a while, including health checks!

Oh neat, wasn't aware! Cheers for providing the update, now if they only could revert the license it might be something one could use again.

I've been using Nomad for years without Consul. Maybe if you complex networking requirements it is worth it, else don't really need it.

Nomad has gained basic service discovery and K/V store without Consul. However, health checking is extremely limited.