Should thugs fight alone or with bodyguards?

[Chazar]

Do Thugs always fight alone? Do SCs always fight alone?

I've read about Thugs/SCs, tried to build one, gave him some better bodyguards and some chaff to draw enemy fire and attacked, only to see the entire troupe rout because some chaff had died - so the Thug fled happily along, not even finishing his buffing sequence. In another try, the chaff which was supposed to die (3 heavily afflicted elephants) had routed the enemy, once more before the Thug finished buffing.

So are Thugs meant to fight always alone, even if they could bring troops or should I believe the DomIII manual that SCs should not fight alone due to the new moral mechanics? If so, should they always come with a biggerish army instead? Should they have bodyguards? Or should any squads be better lead by another commander?
More importantly: What are the considerations to take to answer these question in specific cases?

One consideration is certainly whether I attack armies or PD-only provinces, but I am not yet sure how this affects the answer. (Oh, I am talking about multiplayer, not solo play.)

(Also, I am considering shorter buffing sequence, currently I try at most 2-4 spells, of which at least one is low fatigue (i.e. <10), for example: "bless,mistform,invulnerability,holyavenger,hold; attack". The hold and holyavenger is in there for the reinvigoration derived from boots&bless to work.)