having a hard time getting out of this one, anyone have any tips?

Do not engage the garrisons whose estimated difficulty is higher than "Low". When you right click on an enemy garrison and it predicts the battle as "Normal", "Hard", or "No Chance" -skip it and go around the long way.

I also found the underground not worth the trouble EXCEPT in the southeast corner. You can reach this underground point after clearing the first two towns on the surface. In the underground there are a few dragon generators which should help.

If you need more help or tips try this online guide:

http://guides.gamepressure.com...c5/guide.asp?ID=1186