How to judge whether a raid was actually profitable

Winning a battle is not the same as earning a profit. Add the resource replacement cost of casualties, the time needed to retrain them and the opportunity cost of having the march away from home. Compare that total with food, wood, stone and gold returned. A raid that brings home 2,000 resources but destroys 3,000 resources worth of troops weakened the kingdom. Detailed battle reports make this calculation possible. Prefer repeatable victories with low losses over impressive reports that empty the Barracks queue for hours.