Help with Tau

[coredump]

So, my friends tend to play pretty static gunline marine armies. So when I showed up with Outflanking, Fleeting Nids... and some TMCs for good measure... the results were "Nids are overpowered".

I have tried to explain what they could do differently.... but they just think the Nids are way too good.

So....

I have decided to play them using Tau. Problem: I don't know Tau very well. I have studied the codex, and checked out some Tau sites, but I was hoping folks here could help me.

My target are Marine Equivalent armies, tend to be fairly light on vehicles (2000 pts: 1 land raider, 4 other pred/rhino/razer)


I have a decent Tau selection to choose from:

What I am roughly thinking:

Shas'o Decked out + Shield drones
3x3 crises suits
Railhead
1 sniper drone unit
1x3 Broadsides + Shield drones
6-8 pathfinders/Devilfish
(Plus firewarriors... depending on points)
maybe kroot


I am leaning towards TL missile launchers on the crisis suits (with a second gun and Multi-track)

Input:

I am thinking of running the Shas'o by himself with 2+ save and shield drones. (Maybe a 4++ save also). Will this work, or should I keep him cheap and keep him with a crisis unit?

It seems Crisis is better than Stealth.... correct?

Should I get devilfish for the FWs?

Do I need Kroot? Do I want kroot?

Kroot hounds seem better than kroot, what am I missing?

Should the Railhead be an Ionhead? What about secondary weapons?


Anything I am missing to help against MEq??

Thanks folks. Hopefully I can win with Tau, then they will listen and adapt, then I can go back to Nids...