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Just to begin, in no way is this meant to be an end-all-be-all strategy, more just a discussion guide of usable overlooked, semi-/competitive units that do not require markerlights to perform and tactics that forgo the need for markerlights. Having played Tau since third edition when they released, I had never liked markerlights for one major reason, because I found them expensive and unreliable.

So, is Tau without markerlights even possible in this edition?

I do feel that it is not only possible, but can be competitive to build a list without them, as more often than not in games they either a) get shot off the board by a smart enemy or b) because there are so few optimal places to carry markerlights, that they end up being lost by default anyway (meaning they are on platforms that would normally be targets regardless of the markerlights. As well, with the recent Eldar codex release, wave serpents have for the most part made pathfinders nearly worthless. Serpent shields man, nuff said.

So, as far as tactics are concerned, I feel there is wargear, units and strategies that allow a player to, for the most part, build a list without marker lights.

Commander Suits are almost an absolute must in a list without lights, and for one major reason: drone controllers. Barring the fact that he is BS5, the ability to pass his BS to drones in his unit is incredibly powerful. When playing with a friend, I had a commander joined to a unit of detached drones(from piranhas, which I will get to later), and that squad alone wiped out 2 of his troop choices. As well I have used "make it rain" commanders ( cyclic ion blaster/ burst cannon or double burst cannon, drone controller, x2 gun drones, attached to a 12 drone squadron and deep striking) to great effect, I mean, nothing quite like dropping in and unleashing 36 BS5 S5 shots, 28 of which are twin linked. Most things do not survive that onslaught, and all drones with the 'mander means you are not afraid to LoS wounds to anything, no clever positioning required, just through em around where necessary.

Commander suits also attached to crisis squads with drones is pretty nasty for the same reason.

The other HQ's can be useful, but in a list without markers, I feel no other HQ beats out the commander.

As for troops, there are actually really only 2 ways this strategy would work, either in bulk of Tau Empire troops, or in the use of enclaves crisis troops. As for Tau codex troops, I have seen people get a lot of mileage out of mass kroot more than mass firewarriors for 2 reasons. The first being that you can actually create blob squads that are hard to remove. Second, having access to infiltrate and acute senses means that in the event you start them off the board, you place them where you want when they become available, or in the event of going first, you can infiltrate right in an enemy's face and have a massive alpha strike on them. Fire warriors I feel are too dependent on ethereals when not mobile, which does present the option to field them as min units (possibly with emp grenades) and ride around in D-fishes. D-fishes are still overpriced IMO, but they arent so overpriced to the point of unusable and the SMS got a big boost, so that makes them more viable.

Those two units I would field in 4 ways:
FoF: Fish of fury fire warriors, x_?_: x6 fire warriors, emp grenades(for half of them likely), devilfish w/ SMS and disruption pod. Sensor spines are as well not a bad choice. Be sure not to give the vehicle a blacksun filter, I never understood why people do this. It gains no benefit from it since non of it's weapons have a range beyond 30" and the SMS ignores cover...

Max warriors and ethereal: Lot of people favor this, as this presents one of the hardest gunlines to crack, especially with an ethereal. clever deployment so they can all supporting fire as well makes this army inherently dangerous.

Infiltrating alpha strike Kroot: large sniper kroot squads or min kroot with 3 krootox to rapid fire their auto cannons. infiltrate them all into range. So much firepower.

Outflank blob squads: x20 kroot, 1 hound, + or - sniper rounds, have all of your troops or as many as possible outflanking, hound allows you to reroll what side they arrive on and when they do, you through dozens of bolter or snap shot sniper rounds into them,

As far as crisis troops with enclaves is concerned, I actually prefer using the crisis troops. They are resilient, can be outfitted to combat just about any enemy and have incredible mobility via JsJ and deepstrike. My current favorite configuration is double burst cannon and tw gun drones, with an ATS. Just the bees knees IMO.

Elites:
Crisis: Good elites, but I prefer to use them as troops to free up slots for riptides in addition to the above.

Stealth suits: I have seen people do alpha strike stealth suits, but I am not convinced. I just find them to be far too expensive, and dislike the fact that their weapons are still so limited and apart from good cover saves, are quite flimsy when shot at. As well, with so much ignores cover these days, cover saves arent always what they are cracked up to be.

Riptides: Riptides...man oh man, riptides are just soooo good a shoe-in for any competitive list, with many variant combinations. Currently I run a IA, SMS, early warning override riptide and a HBC, SMS, early warning override, advanced targeting system, earth caste array riptide. never let me down, not once.

Fast attack:
I dont like pathfinders in general, weaker armor, access to great special weapons that should be for fire warriors, and too expensive. Gonna ignore them for this thread.

Vespid: Interesting to think about, but no real purpose without markerlights.

Piranhas: Outstanding unit, fast skimmers with 11 front armor, jink, a 4 shot burst cannon, up to units of 5 and priced in at a measely 40 points. Simply a steal of a unit, I have started using them more regularly and have never looked back. And considering they can spawn a gun drone squadron FOR FREE, with this taken into account they actually only cost around 16 points a piece. Cheapest vehicle in the game. Beauty about spawning the drone squadron is that it is truly the only sacrificial unit in the game, since drones have a specific rule that prevents them from counting towards any mission objectives. That means they don't even give up a killpoint in Scouring or purge the alien missions. Simply outstanding rush/ denial unit and mobile wall. I havent used them enough with fusion guns, but personally I feel the upgrade is not worth giving up 10 more points per piranha and 3 S5 shots. Volume of fire ftw!

Drone Squadrons: In this instance, the only usable squad is the gun drone squadron. Mainly viable when paired with a drone controller commander as mentioned in the commander entry

Flyers: Both tau flyers are sub par, skipping entry

Heavy Support:
Luckily, every heavy support choice is self sufficient without marker lights. Two of them come with markers, but these I feel in the end are more emergency or secondary options to the main weapons.

Broadsides: Man, are these guys a tragedy in my eyes. Oh the days of twin linked S10 ap1 firepower...oh the days... So, the "heavy rail rifle" may not be so good anymore. 1 shot S8 just doesnt hold up in the long run, or at least not with so many vehicles getting cover, invul or whatever kind of save these days. And not compared to the free alternative of the high yield missile pod. But lets take a step back, take a real look and compare these 2 weapons fact for fact.
Strength: Railgun
Range: Railgun
RoF: Missile pod
Adaptability: Missile pod.
Synergy with secondary weapon: Missile pod
So the rail rifle has higher strength (though only by 1) and higher range (nearly double), yet 3 less shots and doesn't sync too well with really either of the secondary weapon options. The SMS with the railgun is basically a "if they get close" weapon. The twin-linked plasma rifle I feel is actually the better of the two options for the simple fact that if you are using the railgun, the broadsides are likely deployed far back and therefore, the plasma rifles are a better tool against deep striking backfield units like terminators.

The HYMP on the other hand, is just a much better option in most scenarios. Rarely is 36" not enough range, and the output of fire that unit is capable of is just silly. The HYMP also synergizes very well with the smart missile system, giving each Bside 8 shots a turn in most circumstances.

Both the hammerhead and the skyray are good tanks, I personally dont really like either as they dont really fit my playstyle, but both being base bs4 with a high output armament makes them easy choices in a list without markerlights. I personally would favor the hammerhead w/, disruption pod, black sun filter, ion cannon, SMS and sensor spines. A good versatile and hard to kill tank.

Sniper Drone Teams: The vastly overlooked sniper drone team is actually much better than people give them credit. Out of the options, 9 drones and a spotter seems to be the best loadout for them. Everyone is BS5, 48 inch range sniper rifles is actually pretty impressive. Fairly cheap too being under 150 pts for the above mentioned unit. The biggest problem with them is that they compete with better options unfortunately, but still far from a weak choice.

SO, very cut and dirty, but the units that seem to be the best combination for a non marker list are:
HQ: commanders
Troops: Any, but for me suits
Elites: tides
Fast: Piranhas
Heavy: Bsides

This is the 1500 and 1750 lists I have come up with, both have faired better than i expected and won 4 and lost only once so far.

Tau 1500 no lights:
HQ
Commander, x2 twin linked missile pods, talisman of moloch 150
Allied Commander, iridium armor, puretide chip, neuroweb jammer, onager gauntlet, x2 fusion guns, target lock 167

Troops
x2 crisis suits, x4 burst cannons, x4 gun drones, x1 ATS, bonding: x1 shas'vre, drone controller 155
x3 crisis suits: x3 twin-linked fusion guns, x3 fusion guns, bonding 174
x6 fire warriors 54



Elites
Riptide, Ion accelerator, EWO, twin-linked SMS, 190
Riptide, Heavy burst cannon, EWO, ATS, twin-linked SMS, earth caste array 218

Fast
x5 piranhas 200

Heavy
x2 broadsides, high yield missile pods, smart missile systems, target lock, bonding, x4 missile drones 190

TOTAL: 1498

Tau 1750 no lights:
HQ
Commander, x2 twin linked missile pods, talisman of moloch 150
Allied Commander, iridium armor, puretide chip, neuroweb jammer, onager gauntlet, x2 fusion guns, target lock 167

Troops
x2 crisis suits, x4 burst cannons, x4 gun drones, x1 ATS, bonding: x1 shas'vre, drone controller 155
x2 crisis suits, x4 burst cannons, x4 gun drones, x1 ATS, bonding: x1 shas'vre, drone controller 155
x2 crisis suits, x4 burst cannons, x4 gun drones, x1 ATS, bonding: x1 shas'vre, drone controller 155
x3 crisis suits: x3 twin-linked fusion guns, x3 fusion guns, bonding 174
Allied x6 fire warriors 54

Elites
Riptide, Ion accelerator, EWO, twin-linked SMS, 190
Riptide, Heavy burst cannon, EWO, ATS, twin-linked SMS, earth caste array 218

Fast
x4 Piranhas 160

Heavy
x2 broadsides, high yield missile pods, smart missile systems, target lock, bonding, x2 missile drones 166

TOTAL: 1744

Feel free to comment and do your own thang!