I seem to be stuck in the Demon Faction's last mission; or at least I presume it's the last one (where you're supposed to find Tieru in the fog of the Dragonmist Isles).

I can't trace my steps back to go recruit more troops from the Howling Kennels on the southeasternmost island, because apparently the tunnels behind me (through which I traced my path to where I came to a halt) have collapsed. What a stupid plot device. Now there is nothing but a paltry 50 or so arch druids blocking my way to a new shipyard from which I could buy myself passage back across the sea to go recruit more troops - which I would need to defeat the damned druids to begin with! What's worse is that I can almost push past them.. only 10 or so of them remain standing before my meager troops fall to their spells.

I did just fine till that one fateful point. But what am I supposed to do now? The only way to proceed is to go through that bunch of druids, and I don't have the manpower for it.

Any tips?

Start over and move faster...if you really can't do it you'd have to go earlier in the campaign and rebuild Agrael.

You can always lower difficulty.