Misconceptions and Weapon Choices for Tau

I keep seeing a lot of... well let's just say bad advice for potential Tauists out there. The largest of them seem to be in the form of weapon choices, and all seem to stem from a few major misconceptions. Let me key them up here:

1. Tau should never be "in assault range" for an opponent. We die quickly
2. 5th Edition is heavily focused on both Troops and Mech. That means Transports
3. You're going to be fighting a lot of MEQs. Marines are just the most popular army out there, deal with it.

So then - if I'm facing a lot of mechanized marines, but need to stay at least... oh let's say 13" (assuming they roll a 1 on their run roll) from my enemies at all times what are my options? Well we need to evaluate them on four different prongs of points of criteria. The more we acheieve, the better the weapon

• Range
• MEQ Killing
• Rhino Killing
• Land Raider Killing

So I'll be revisiting my earlier attempts at evaluating each weapon, plus discussion potential synergies along the way. This will be a fun ride.

All my mathhammer is caculated on a spreadsheet that allows me to take a given combat situation (BS, Weapon stats, # shots, #target models in unit, save of target, and toughness of target) to calculate the number of shots landed, # wounds dealt, and number of unsaved wounds. For vehicles it will calculate the percentage change of glancing and penetrating hits.