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

====General Advice====
* Use Drones.
* Synergy is your friend. All your units should be supporting one another.
* Your units are confusing to non-Tau and are [[Distraction Carnifex|hard to react properly against]]. Rotate threats well to keep your more powerful units safe.
* Avoid dedicated melee units like the plague.
* You have no way to Deny the Witch. Psykers will be a problem. Using Kroot and/or Shield Drones as screens against Smite will help a lot but won't protect you from Warpgate shenanigans or similar.
* Don't go in melee to kill the enemy, but to survive. Against most shooty armies it is safer in close combat than it is in the open getting fired on. Most Tau units have a preferred range of under 18" so can get a bit closer and charge an enemy gunline and tie them up. Best on suits that can tank overwatch and FLY out to shoot.
* Your larger suits are vulnerable to smite spam and las spam. Keep them mobile, shielded, and away from characters (with a cordon of anti-drop guards if a deep-striking sorcerer seems likely).
* USE FUCKING DRONES!
* Markerlights are always, '''ALWAYS''' helpful. Use the Uplinked Markerlight strategem to give you bonuses if you don't have many in your army, use Fireblades and Marksmen for easy hits, Shove them in a droneport to have them hitting on 2's. Use them, Use them all.
* If you are playing FSE, remain aggressive and remember that you have some decent CC options of your own, and nothing throws off your enemy than charging with a Fusion Blade commander and/or Farsight. The enemy should never feel safe from any of your shooting units.
* Focus your fire. A lot of 8th edition is focused on synergy, so be sure to knock out synergy units with your superior firepower. 
* If you are upset with the 1 commander suit per detachment, remember you can take a cheap vanguard or auxiliary detachment to shoehorn in a second commander. 
* Firesight Marksmen are worth their weight in gold. You don't even need the drones- <span style='color:blue;font-size:100%'> Drones are an essential part of the Tau'va war machine, and refusing to use them is a detriment to our effectiveness. Please report to the nearest Ethereal for a debriefing. </span>
* A Battalion costs less than 200 pts with 3x5 man strike teams, and 2 of Ethereal/Darkstrider/Cadre. Its one of the cheapest battalions that 8th ed has to offer and is not a push over. Basic battalions are also extremely flexible when comparing Septs; Sa'cea with minimum squads and an Ethereal is immune to unmodified moral checks as well as increasing ML accuracy (but pushes cost to slightly over 200 if you include MLs on each Strike Team), triple tapping at 18" with Bor'kan, High mobility castle with Vio'rla, 5+ overwatch screens as Tau... Every list, even at very low pt games should start with a battlion.
* You are limited to one Commander per detachment. You can minimise this limit by using multiple small detachments. Since Battalions are cheap and easy to make for Tau, you should at least have 2 in your list, this will give you a whopping 13 command points. If you can squeeze another one in there go for it, but if you can't just take one more detachment with smaller requirements. Do what you gotta do to field 3 commanders. 
* Did we mention '''USE DRONES'''?