well, it seems like you don't have a purpose of fight. You have to gain something by your fight, you don't spread out your troops before defeating the enemy. Like you said, they will just circle you easily, and your rifleman can't work as a combined force
On the contrary- as you said, I don't fight for no reason and my original post states that I avoid fighting in the early stages in favour of capping. If necessary, I try to group units together, but I either get outgunned or outcapped. I've played a few more games since this post, and I do need to get better at being everywhere at once, it seems; which is a change from team games where you mind your own area.