Scenario and Deployment Woes

I'm not clever enough yet to discern how to leverage some kind of advantage from the mission and deployment being played. In particular I'm finding it tough going whenever I play a game using the Hammer and Anvil deployment.

The terrain on my home board is fixed in place so I can't try to place terrain in an advantageous position. However the terrain is evenly placed with plenty of area terrain and LoS blocking ruins. I'm satisfied with it and don't believe that I've inadvertently gimped myself with the game board.

What is frustrating me is I'm getting chewed up with all of my opponent's units so close together. I can't move in such a fashion to attack him while limiting his subsequent shooting the following turn. My friend is a sound player who likes to take plenty of cover ignoring or LoS ignoring weapons and deep striking units when playing his Tau. He also likes those cover ignoring and or large blast weapons with his Imperial Guard.

Last night we played Big Guns Never Tire. I deployed first and was able to set up the majority of objectives in a tight area near or in my deployment zone with 4+ cover from a multi-story ruin to place my warriors in to provide a good firing position. Well a few marker lights and a round of shooting from some stealth suits took care of them real quick. I had two full units in two separate engagements get cut down in one turn of shooting! I just shook my head and lamented no armor save and no cover save equals a bunch of dead DE.

Is there any mission or deployment that cause you fellow Archons to cringe? If so how have you learned to get around these things.

I always use ff due to fact I play a all comers list so even tho they have ignored cover I got my 5+ inv save which in alot of causes have saved my butt I should add. Also you should try beastmaster unit led by baron( it will do alot of damage if used smartly.. I also setup up deployment with the just in case my opponent seizes the I.

Remember it's good at times to have stuff in reserve especially if you know they will deepstrike units. Also what units you play .. It will help us better understand you dilemma

I'm still experimenting with units. So any game is a near random mix. Last night I played with 3 Warrior squads in raiders with DL's. A 15 Wych squad on foot. A 10 Wych squad in Raider. A 5 Wych squad in Venom.  A 5 Trueborn squad in in a Venom.  A Cronos. A Haemie. And for laughs a 5 Mandrake squad

I was real pleased with the Trueborn which I equiped with 2 splinter canons and 3 shard carbines. This unit contributed to the destruction of a Tau Warrior squad and a Crisis team. They survived til the end of the game. They were one of the few units I was able to keep protected.

edit
Just to follow up. I have on my shelves: A Razorwing, Talos, 10 Hellions, 10 Scourges, and 6 Reaver Jetbikes.

More than just unit selection I'm curious to learn if anyone struggles with a particular deployment or mission and if they do what is the problem(s) and how do they try to overcome them.

To my mind you're forgetting one other important aspect of setting up.

There is terrain - which is locked for you.
There is deployment type, which can somewhat affect what you're doing, but really shouldn't.
There is mission type, which does.
And then there's the biggest - what are you playing against and what of their setup can you react to?

Mission and deployment type matter almost not at all - what matters to me is what I'm playing against (and what I'm fielding, also) and those two factors will affect my deployment almost entirely. The mission and deployment types barely enter into it for me.

If the place your playing place has limited amount of terrain bring your own. DE benefit greatly from Bastion and even from landing pad. Aegis is not that good since it doesn't grant cover for Venoms or Raiders.

I hate, and I can't underemphasise this, HATE purge the alien. Don't think I've ever even played an opponent that has as many kill points on the table as me in that scenario - even when I played guard the little b*&$er combined all his infantry into one big 30-man platoon at deployment.

Best thing I've found to help out is either 1) take the Duke or 2) take retrofire jets. Either of these lets you reserve your raiders till later in the game thus saving them from some of the early fire. Downside of course is it puts a lot of pressure on the stuff you do deploy to survive longer. As such, a pair of ravagers with night shields and flickerfields (to avoid the aforementioned Ignores Cover weapons) are practically a must have.