I don't understand why sometimes surviving troops come back home, and other times they are just totally wiped out and I have to start from scratch. Anybody else have this issue?
The game has a slight rule on troops returning. Any troops you take into battle will return assuming two conditions are met.
1.) They survive the battle (Not get killed by defense)
2.) You destroy all defensive buildings
If you don't meet those two conditions you will not have any troops come back.
You need to win the battle and destroy all defensive buildings for your deployed troops to return, otherwise they'll die, even if you simply end the battle without winning
