[Kuritza]

I always said that MR is an unreliable protection against spells like soul slay, charm etc. As a rule of thumb - never, ever send your SCs out without at least an antimagic amulet. Your goddess had MR 19, which is rather low. And I got lucky, of course. MR of 25 will protect you long enough, most of the time. (I still lost some Arch Devils with MR 25 to WL's charmers back then - some bad rolls). MR of 30 is more or less a proof, but its also really hard to get without gimping your SC.

To intercept armies before they move, you need a teleport or cloud trapeze. Magic movement is resolved before normal movement. Teleporting is a huge advantage, actually, because you can see the equipment of your target, you know his weaknesses and thus can attack him where it hurts.

Btw, a tip: if your SC has astral, give him two pearls. After the battle, script him for returning and move to the lab; if he gets intercepted, he just casts returning and stays alive. (Golems are a notable exception - they are dumb and can ignore scripted returning sometimes). You can also script your lone SC for retreat if you expect an ambush, if there are friendly provinces to retreat to.

Again, let me say that for a first MP game you did just great.