Competition or Friendly Gaming

I have a friend who plays 40k, he is an original, meaning he was in on the ground floor of the hobby back in the 80′s. He has awful luck, but comes up with amazing lists that always seem to work out better for other people. To give you an idea of his luck, in 4/5 games I have watched him with his grey knights, on the first roll with his psyker squad, he has had the pearals happen to the unit wiping them out. The last game, he had a paladin unit (700 points) get tack shocked, break, then tank shocked again that same turn, and since they are already running they run again, and go off the board.

So his problem is whether to leave the hobby or not. Having played this long, I personally think he should stick it out, at the very least, see what happens in the next edition of the game. It may go back to something more familiar to him, or just don’t care about wins and losses. It has been a long time myself since I cared if I won or not. Not that I don’t relish a win or learn from a loss, it just no longer matters to me. I say the same to my friend, and I know that I have won a lot, especially in this edition locally, and he has been crushed most of the time.

Really what gets you into this hobby, what makes you excited and makes you want to keep playing. I enjoy the social aspect and tactical play to the game. For that matter the illusion of running around as a space marine shooting stuff is huge, in some distant far of world, but that is just me. I enjoy the hobby side a lot as well. Painting, sculpting (what little I can do) and design. All of this brings the hobby together to me and makes me excited. So, what do you do to get excited.