the obvious solution to that, is to go past tier 2 to tier 3, and get tier 3 meele for rifles, and get anti-casters in whatever form.
AM or BM with rifles pretty much will dominate ghouls early game. a combination of ghouls and destroyers, with destroyers coming in every few secodns to suck up slow, should be able to overpower rifles. Heros are also key, cause u can't beat them withouit nuking rifles with nova, and heros with coil.