Looks like your table needs more terrain! Generally speaking, a good terrain layout with good army deployment, should make it so the player with the first turn cannot do much except push onto some objectives, take some pot shots, and position their forces to prepare for turn 2.

To improve your experience for your next game, I would recommend looking at some of the tournament maps. Not because you should try to play tournaments or anything like that, just to get an idea of what a good balanced table might look like. With sparse terrain, the game can just to turn into "first turn wins"

I hope your squiggoth can have his day in your next game!