I think it is a little from column A a little from column B, i.e. “both and” not “either or”.

BA is a perfectly fun game enjoyed by loads of people who also love history. Me for instance!  Not everyonwho enjoys history is all that bothered about extensive “realism” in the rules that they play.  Having a game that plays well and accomodates the mix of units that I want to model up may in my view be worth more than “realism”.  I possess the Chain of Command rules and will get round to tryimg them some day, but haven’t yet as whenever we get around to  WW2 game we tend to break out BA because that is the ruleset we know and most of the time it gives us an enjoyable evening’s gaming. I understand the ranges thing and to be honest we just have a laugh about it as we couldn’t care less.  It just makes for an amusing absurdity that is quickly passed over.

Being told (or having the perception of being told) that the game you enjoy is inferior to the game someone else enjoys is irritating.  Because the simple truth is we all enjoy games for different reasons.

Now I’m not saying your friend was being unreasonable, but even starting that conversation is a risk. And I would say that most of us actually don’t like receiving un-asked-for advice, however well meant.

Far better to engage someone from a different “tribe” on something positive we share – such as complimenting them on the painting or enjoying a sculpt together rather than coming over all condescending.

Now we also all know those mono-system HW fanatics who can’t accept that there are different ways of doing things out there and are dismissive of other companies.  But the reality is they are content in their gaming niche and good on them.

Just because we enjoy one aspect of the hobby – such as realism, or even painting our models – doesn’t mean others we are talking to will, or should .  The old “you’re doing the hobby wrong” syndrome is all too prevalent .  I suspect it is a feature of the type of folk who are attracted to gaming, if the stereotype is true, that communication isn’t necessarily a common strength…

Of course historical gamers are not alone in possessing the trait.  All of us in whatever niche we enjoy are prone to it. It just perhaps manifests itself over different issues to realism – as sci-fi/fantasy ard less bound by appearing to adhere to it.

To my mind there is mothing more impenetrable than a group of 40k or AoS fanatics, but that’s just my perspective.