I don't remember friends deck exactly but he is taking all aggresive in faction ploys and all neutral "must have" ploys like trap, great concussion, ready for action, my turn and quick thinker which is just broken with Farstriders(you move away from a guy making his activation useless and then proceed to murder him with your ranged attacks). Also one key ploy is Shardgale. It helps immensly with your killing power and auto scores Multiple Fronts.
^Because of ploys he can really dish out a lot of damage. His upgrades are similarly aggresive - shadeglass weapons, gun that gives cleave, helpful whispers, counterattack thingy. He also runs A Destiny to meet as some form of lategame points and obviously Army of one which similarly to Quick thinker is too strong with them(they can make use of additional attack dice multiple times in a turn).
These are his objectives:
behead the beast(e)
punishing volleys(e)
advancing strike(i)
alone in the darkness(e)
master of war(e)
masterstroke(i)
ploymaster(e)
multiple fronts(i)
precise use of force(i)
superior tactician(3e)
the bigger they are (i)
victory after victory (e).
As you can see it is an all out offence deck with no regard for objective holding. I think going hybrid with them is a trap.
The main problems when playing against this deck:
1. You can't effectively engage - if you run with your warriors head on there is a good chance one of them will die or two will be severly wounded while farstriders will keep their distance. You will get 0 - 1 charges first turn if he doesn't want you to engage.
2. Can't effectively play defensive/objective game - the farstriders have exact same threat ranges as skaven. They are the fastest warband in the game when it comes down just to charges. They will easily interrupt your score obj plan.
3. Even when he engages you and you have some good rolls and put some hurt on them it does not reduce their damage output the same way it does to the other warbands - due to them not being required to charge in order to deal damage. You eliminating two of them may paradoxically make game harder for you, as you enable an army of one guy who is sitting in the middle of your board to wreck havoc with 4 dices on ranged attacks dealing 1 - 2 dmg with each, while your warriors are stuck because they have already charged or can't really engage him(if you charge him and fail(3 dice defence sometimes with a reroll) you are in melee range of 2 - 3 dmg attack and can't move, if you fail and push him back you are still in range of his gun and cannot move).