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Okay so I have some bad news; I lost playing tau twice today. Now the first time I understood but the second time seemed to be by luck. Here's the two lists I used:
First game against DE:

Commander: drone controller; vectored retro-thrusters; Multi-spectrum Sensor Suite; Command and Control Node 133

9 Fire Warriors: Fire Warrior Shas'ui 91
8 Fire Warriors: Fire Warrior Shas'ui 82

3 XV8 Crisis Team: Crisis Shas'ui (missile pod; target lock; missile pod; marker drone; marker drone); Crisis Shas'ui (missile pod; target lock; missile pod; marker drone; marker drone) 243
2 XV8 Crisis Team: Crisis Shas'ui (fusion blaster; fusion blaster) 109

5 Pathfinders 55

3 XV88 Broadside Team: Broadside Shas'vre (velocity tracker; marker drone; twin-linked high-yield missile pod); Broadside Shas'ui (velocity tracker; marker drone; twin-linked high-yield missile pod); Broadside Shas'ui (target lock; marker drone; twin-linked high-yield missile pod) 286

999 points

Against Daemons:

Commander: drone controller; vectored retro-thrusters; Multi-spectrum Sensor Suite; Command and Control Node 133

6 Fire Warriors 54
6 Fire Warriors 54

3 XV8 Crisis Team: Crisis Shas'ui (missile pod; target lock; missile pod; marker drone; marker drone); Crisis Shas'ui (missile pod; target lock; missile pod; marker drone; marker drone) 243
3 XV8 Crisis Team: Crisis Shas'ui (fusion blaster; fusion blaster; target lock); Crisis Shas'ui (fusion blaster; fusion blaster) 166

5 Pathfinders 55

3 XV88 Broadside Team: Broadside Shas'vre (velocity tracker; missile drone; missile drone; twin-linked high-yield missile pod); Broadside Shas'ui (early warning override; missile drone; twin-linked high-yield missile pod); Broadside Shas'ui (target lock; missile pod; twin-linked high-yield missile pod) 286

991 points

So I'll go through the first game against DE. Mind you this was my first ever game playing tau. Anyways, he had 3 raiders with 10 warriors with splinter racks and the ram things for upgrades, a ravanger with distructors, a scourges, a venom and a razor wing. He deployed a venom, raider and scour ages just outside of my 36 inch missile marker range. I deployed everything here and there with my commander with the 6 marker drone battle suits. First couple turns were meh but I did push my battle suits with the commander in it up. Then he deep struck everything but the razor wing came in later. He caught my suits by themselves and my broadsides were caught by themselves too. He wedged all those units between both units. My fusion suits DS next to a raider and venom but they did nothing really. I conceded turn 4 when everything got wiped out basically. I learnt that I had to hang back more and wait for the enemy to come and not get caught with my pants down with over agressive suits. I did have a giant space open for DS possibility but my opponent usually goes from the board edge and I know from ALL of my experience that i screw up 99% of the time for DS so I didn't really consider it a threat if I were to DS there, but I wasn't playing myself. Us when he deep struck one raider it was on my broad sides and he said he rammed and didn't mishap:/, any insight on that cause it's really sketchy. So I tried to do this for my second game against daemons.

My next game was against a daemon player and she had all minimum squads of flamers, horrors, daemonettes, screamers, daemon prince of nurgle, 3 plauge drones and a nurgle soul grinder. Realizing that tau shouldn't be agressive unless I had a mobile suit list or something, I stayed back and basically shot the crap out of everything. It was emporers will with three objectives (the last game was the relic fyi) and she had a plan of DS everything but her daemon prince(which stayed on the board out of Los and 30'' smart missile range). She had incredible luck for rolling the direct hits in places where you shouldn't DS in the first place but it was fine because all her reserves didn't come in place at once which allowed for easy shooting fish in the barrel type of game. I took out the everything but the soul grinder and one daemonettes. She spawned another flamer unit which gave her line breaker and even some blood letters but they were sent back to the warp via missile pods. I also took out the daemon prince with my commander lmfao because he charged through difficult and he must've tripped on some difficult terrain or something because he got taken out. Then at the end of the game I had all broadsides, one suit and commander left and some pathfinders that got fried at the end by the flamers. Idk what went wrong because I crushed everything but I couldn't get into an objective at the end and after killing her prince she had an exalted reward which made it come back with one wound from reserves. It was literally marker light 2 squads, take off two squads. The only thing that saved me was reserves and having them only pass for 2 units that she had turn after turn. She sat her grinder and prince on the two objectives.

Moving forward I think I have to change my list. I'm not looking to the 'ultimate' list that can kill any and everything. I would like some changes that can benefit me in an all round senario because I'm going for a tournament league list. My first thought is that there's not enough dakka but IMO tau don't need tons of dakka because they're only realistically taking out 1 or 2 units a turn, not 5. It makes sense with marker lights and such as well. I don't really know where to start other than maybe more suits for broadsides or something. Maybe a riptide? I know there the cliche tau unit but it doesn't seem to have a lot of firepower but yes it still has a nice S8 ap 2 LB but not tons of kill potential. Also anti air. What should be some really good anti air? Broadsides seem to do well But what if they get taken out? I'd like something a bit more realiable. Any help is wanted and considered.

You need mobility to grab objectives. You can't expect to stay in your deployment zone and shoot everything to death because there are units in the game that are just hard to kill (such as a soul grinder or nurgle prince). In order to win you have to get to the objectives which your 2nd list wasn't set up to do.

So, the first thing I will say, your Tau lists are not very large and don't have enough markerlights. This is particularly bad against Daemons, who are going to be charging you.

I would find a way to add another Pathfinder team. You have all the firepower you need against these armies, but you need to maximize its effectiveness in every way possible given the low model count.

Yeah my list doesn't have very many units in it. Also I find that I almost have markerlight overkill on units that I hit with the 6 re rollable bs5 lights. Esecially when they're De transports because they're so flimsy. I want to stick with suits because they're more mobile and have missile pods. How would I add more units? I mean I don't feel that investing in FW are very reliable because of LD and an agies makes them very static. Fitting in another pathfinder team would be a little hard too because I feel that for a balanced list I need a counter to av14. I also have a friend who runs that De list and is dominating our local meta so Im kind of stuck with intercepting broadsides because his DS vehicles land perfectly in the best spots. He also loves to dark lance and rapid fire twinlink into my squads and rip them apart. I don't want to tailor my list but I need some help dealing with him because he's beat me even when I used my drop pod sm, twice. Anyways yeah I think you guys are right with more dakka and lights.

First of all, it is a good question to ask - how did I lose. My answer: Too much half measured effort

From your first list.

Your lists are decent, but lack survivability. Your commander should have pure tide chip and iridium armour giving him T5 and 2+ save that will allow him to tank some of the hits to the missile crisis team. Broadsides would benefit of loosing their drones and instead putting them in a as forward ad possible bastion (1-2 with sky fire and 1-2 with target lock) - when you place objectives place one next to your bastion (with commas relay), giving you nearly certain objective.

Next you need to work on your mobility as mentioned above. I would consider dropping your fusion crisis and adding a riptide with ion cannon and fusion (if enough points), changing 2 x 10 fire warriors to 2 x 10 kroot with 1 hound. Kroot outflank and can grab far away objectives that you place near the table edges. Riptide and missile crisis grab far away objectives, pushing forward each turn.

Having 5 marker lights from pathfinders and 6 from marker drones with missile crisis should be enough.

I haven't done the points and the above changes might be too tough for your environment.

Tau victory flow chart
1. Do you have marker lights?
2. Do you have trip tide?
3. If you are missing any of these then start over.
4. If you have all this and still lose then ally Tau to get 4th rip tide
5. If you still lose then get Eldar Wave Serpents as 2nd CAD or allies
6. Shoot them with superior 60" shield blast.

and as a side joke

Chaos Space Marines victory flow chart
1. If you are playing CSM, do not expect to win!

I normally forgo Markerlights from my army unless the game is big enough or I feel that army needs it.

My normal tactic is to have a decent fire base of 3 troops, usually Kroot with a least one unit with sniper rounds. I also have a dedicated force multiplication unit for either of my focus, Fire Warriors/infantry (Ethereal in a Devilfish) and/or Crisis Suit Scalpel Squad (Buffmander like yours, but I don't take Vector Thrust unless I have Farsight since they don't normally get away, and instead take the Onagar Gauntlet and the Neuroweb System Jammer because the possibility of giving a Punisher Cannon or Stompa Supa-Gatler Gets Hot is glorious).

I do not like the Mark'O setup you have as I prefer my Scalpel Squad. 2 Crisis with 2x Plasma Crisis with a single Crisis with 2x Fusion and a target lock. If I have the points I give the Plasma suits target locks as well and have everyone take Gun Drones (including the commander) and give the buffmander a drone controller. This allows me to target 3 units, Heavy Infantry, MC, or light vehicles with my Plasmas, a heavy vehicle or MC with my Fusion, and normal infantry with my Gun Drone swarm. With everything from the suits ignoring armor and cover, and the Gun Drones destroying 5+ outright, they form the cutting edge of my army. Throw Farsight if you really need that 0 scatter. I've never had a game where these guys didn't land and decimate everything around them.

But with my scalpel I need a hammer which takes the form of my IA Riptide with EWO and Stim Injector and/or my HBC Riptide with Skyfire and Stim Injector. The point of this guy is to be scary and the blow something up (or at least hurt it badly) turn one "taunting" my opponent. I also kited the guy out with LEDs so he glows like a Christmas tree and people can't stop from trying to take it off the table. I also like to use either Ion Heads or Skyrays and Missilesides for my back field support to help the Riptide be scary. If everything goes well, my opponent's important units are stuck between my Riptide(s) and my Scalpel Squad which is a really bad place it be.

If I take Fire Warriors, I make sure to setup some ruins at the edge of my deployment (filling in behind to prevent easy deep strikes) so my Fire Warriors can get a good, safe, firing position. With standing Kroot like snipers, either woods or ruins will work equally since they will have the same cover save. These guys make up my mid field pressure and try and stay on upper floors of the ruin so they are more protected from assaults.

Depending on your opponents, If your opponent is shooty like Guard or Necron, you need to take the fight to them at your range.That isn't to say you should run your Fire Warriors in the melee, but force them to play at your range instead of theirs.
If your opponent is an assault or close range army, the Tau Castle is your ally. Setup your army so most of your units are within 6" of each other. A large Kroot wall or road bump that they have to charge first is the best for triggering supporting fire and gunning them down. However, don't put your Crisis Teams or flanking Kroot in the castle. They are going to be what shakes up your opponent's plans and apply pressure on other parts of the field. Don't forget to check your opponent's army to see if they have any blast weapons that will wreck your day if you have you models too close together.

Against Daemons and other armies that like their MC, Kroot snipers are beasts, relatively safe in their forest unless your opponent has ignore cover weapons, they can gun down MCs relatively easily and have a few trophy's on their wall for the job they've done including an opposing Riptide.

This is more of an overview on how I play Tau and I hope it helped you.

You should have some Interceptor in key units (missile crisis/sides)

 Filch wrote:


and as a side joke

Chaos Space Marines victory flow chart
1. If you are playing CSM, do not expect to win!

1. Do I have more chaos spawn than bolters?
2. Are they nurgle?
3. Do I have more chaos lords than chaos space marines?

If all 3 are yes, jobs a good un.