Motherly love Mission

I just came back from completing the mission with a majority of my army that survived never came back. I still had over 200 calvary and im left now with 15, ive lost all my recruits, ive lost militia, bowman and longbowman, the only thing I didnt loose was the soldiers. I was wondering what happend to my missing army and If i will ever get them back?
They were not assigned to a general as I was coming back and forth bringing in my army for the mission, all those unassigned are lost in limbo. Will i be compensated or are they lost for good?

Have you checked in the star menu to see that they aren't returning separately? I know if your doing this mission you are probably a veteran but, i sometimes forget that they come back separate from generals and have a special picture that shows their progress in the star menu. Just a thought, but im not hearing much good stuff about this mission and im about to do it with a friend, getting nervous about trying...

BTw if i may ask, what is the xp payout and loot like on this puppy

Ok Audrey pointed it out to me about the star menu. I always forget to check there. it says i have troops returning in 19 minutes. so I feel relieved. I only got 464 xp for my part in it and 500 longbows 500 goldbars and 1500 granite. The person i did it with got2k xp and titanium and something else i forgot what now. All i did was 3 attacks. one was an interception of caltrops. Good loot but bad xp :)

Yeah, Motherly Love is very poor for XP, it's main purpose is getting those high-end resources.

I wish someone would throw up a guide to this on what to use on the camps. One of the few missing from our awesome adventure writers.