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Even as a beginning Tau player I know that assaults for me are bad. So far in most my games I've been able to shoot down most anything that tries to get close enough to assault me.

However I'm concerned about dealing with fleet troops in open-toped transports. If i'm adding things up correctly the fleet units could move 12" with the transport, disembark 2", run a possible 6", and assault withing another 6", Thats at most a 26" movement. With Dawn of War Deployment they could possibly be at the middle of the table, or at least within 18" of my units. Making a first of second turn assault probable.

So far the only way to counter this is to either hold forces in reserve or deploy on the table edge. Are there any other tactics I can use?

Transports are your friend

2 words: meat shield

Tau can block better than most armies, but there are some specific tricks and you have to get your positioning right.

1. Take a squadron or two of Piranhas for big, expensive enemy assault transports like battlewagons or land raiders. Jet 24" to be 1" in front of them, spread out to maximum coherency. If you have three in the squadron, and are up against one LR or a BW with KFF, use the three Ps to block the front and wrap around the enemy's sides slightly. He now has a choice- back up/go around, losing a huge amount of distance as he stays outside 1" of your skimmers, or Ram. But Ramming he's only going to be S5 (tank +4pts of armor over 10), and you get a 3+ dodge. If he fails to kill the Piranha, he stops 1"away. Congratulations, you have almost certainly stopped the expensive transport for at least one turn so you can shoot it again. If any of the Piranhas survive the enemy turn, they can move 12" over the enemy transports and melta them in the rear.

2. Use squads of 10 Kroot and/or Gun Drones from off your skimmers to create what's known as "bubble wrap": disposable squads surrounding your important suits in a semicircular screen which physically prevent the enemy from reaching/assaulting your important stuff until after they kill the cheap junk. Do this in two layers. If you position correctly, each layer buys your suits another turn of shooting.

To follow up on Mannahnin's post, I agree that screening is your tactic of choice against fast assault armies of all kinds, not just DE.

In addition to bubble wrap, you can use small disposable units of Kroot to push back your opponent's deployment. (You don't have to infiltrate them, and they're troops, so can deploy normally in dawn of war.) Park a line of screening kroot about 14" in front of the assaulting DE skimmers, and that will prevent him from being able to assault anything except the kroot, giving you another turn to shoot him (he can fly over, but you still get an extra turn to shoot). Park a screen of kroot 12" in front of assaulting jump troops (like blood angels) and you force them to move at less than their max speed and spend a turn breaking through the screen, giving you at least one more shooting turn. They can shoot a hole in the screen, but not until after they've been denied movement in the movement phase.