Editing Warhammer 40,000/8th Edition Tactics/Tau (section)

===Fortifications===
* '''Tidewall General Info''': Gives your embarked unit/characters a Wounds buffer and higher Toughness, which also doesn't affect their morale when lost. At the cost of not being able to fire Overwatch (even with '''For the Greater Good'''), Advance, and use abilities of any kind (including auras). There's also nothing (expect markerlights) to mitigate the penalty for firing Heavy weapons after the platform moves. If the platform gets Charged, however, you can (unless the platform is completely surrounded leaving you no room to do so) disembark the unit inside out of the back, leaving them able to shoot at something else while the enemy is tarpitted by the platform. Remember that these fortifications can hold any combination of Infantry Characters and one Infantry unit. In the previous example, you can have the unit disembark then fall back with the fortification using the character left inside to let the unit that was previously inside unload on the unit, great tactic for Breacher squads who use this tactic with Devilfish.
** All Tau Fortifications retain the Sept rule, so they benefit from their Sept Tenets. Not all of them have any application, but the Dal'yth Tenet is especially useful for unmoving Fortifications.
** '''Tidewall Droneport''': You can take 4 Tactical Drones with it, and use the embarked unit's BS for firing. Best use seems to be one with 4 Markerlight Drones, and throw a Darkstrider into it, to have them all shooting at BS2+. Probably our most reliable way to get 1 Markerlight token on a few units, for the re-rolls. Although you give up access to his two abilities for the boost.
*** ALTERNATIVELY: Put a 24 point Firesight Marksman into one of these and give those 4 Marker Drones BS 3+ (buffable to 2+ via Drone Controller). Since it's also "open topped" the Marksmen himself will be able to add a Markerlight shot as well. Easily capable of racking up the required 5 Markerlight Hits for +1 to hit. For 134 points (70 Dronering + 40 4x Marker Drones + 24 Marksmen points) that has enough room to hold 9 other guys, Breacher Teams recommended.
** '''Tidewall Shieldline''': The reflect field now works again (even when the enemy fire weapons with negative AP) as it causes a mortal wound to the firing enemy unit on an unmodified save of 6. Worth noting that this is our only fortification that doesn't explode when it is destroyed! Best use currently is to throw some Pathfinders on it, although as mentioned, they still get a -1 to hit if the Shieldline moves.
*** '''Tidewall Defence Platform''': You can take one per shieldline. They have to deploy next to each other, but can move independently after that. It packs +1T compared to the shieldline, but it ''can'' explode when destroyed. Can be useful if you want to get another fortification on the field without using another detachment slot, but if you ''haven't'' maxed out your fortification slots then it's shit.
** '''Tidewall Gunrig''': You get 2 railgun shots for less than a Hammerhead! Unfortunately, you need to keep a unit embarked or it can only target the closest enemy unit, and even then it still only hits on 5+ (or BS4+ if the target has 5+ markerlight hits).
*** Perfect unit to embark pathfinders on. It provides durability to the pathfinders, and they provided the needed ballistic skill improvements to the gunrig. And with 5x marker hits, the gunrig should hit at least half the time, which with 2 shots, will make it as useful as a hammerhead would be.
**** Notable that line of sight for the embarked unit can be drawn from the tall tower of this unit. Can be used to fire over things.

* '''Remote Sensor Tower (Forge World)''': One High-Intensity Markerlight at BS4+, and allows one Tau unit within 3" to re-roll ones to hit. Pretty good for 40 points, but the all-or-nothing 50% shot at 3 tokens or none for the High-intensity Markerlight means Pathfinders should still be the main choice for Markerlight application. This might help you bump someone up to that lovely 5+ tokens for +1 to hit part of the Markerlight table though, using the reroll ones from an existing couple of tokens to make the HIM hit more likely (Perhaps thanks to some Pathfinders within 3" of the tower, using its reroll 1s ability to apply their own Markers more reliably. Teamwork!).

* '''Drone Sentry Turret (Forge World)''': Can only shoot at the closest target, meaning point for point regular Gun Drones will provide more firepower than the Burst Cannons with the same limitations. The Plasma and Fusion weapons could work out, but would require the enemy being stupid enough to stand the right targets closest to the sentry for you.