Trying to Lock In Our Campaign Kickoff
We spent the end of June doing what every good Warhammer group eventually has to do: trying to align calendars, hobby progress, duty shifts, holidays, birthdays, and actual life so we could finally kick off a campaign together.
And, well… it went exactly as you’d expect.
First idea: a quick call to sort out the campaign start
Michał kicked things off by asking whether we could jump on a call on Monday or Tuesday to talk through the beginning of the campaign. The goal was simple: get everyone together, discuss the opening steps, and stop the whole thing from living only in chat messages and vague good intentions.
Availability, however, immediately turned into its own mini-game.
- Andrzej was up for it, but Monday afternoon was blocked by Necromunda at MGC, and Tuesday evening was out because of Ewa’s birthday.
- Pegie said Tuesday was fine.
- Wilini could do Monday during the day, but Tuesday was a duty shift.
- Staś had a tougher schedule and was mostly only free after 20:00, though he might have been able to dial in from work after 16:00.
So naturally, nothing actually happened.
As Michał later summed it up: no virtual meeting, no miracle.
Hobby status update in the middle of the scheduling chaos
In the middle of all that calendar wrestling, Andrzej dropped a painting update for his AoD project, which honestly felt very on brand for us: if we can’t organize a campaign yet, at least we can admire painted models.
Wilini was also already in deep on prep work. He had a 2000-point list ready, was assembling a character on foot, and deliberately holding off on buying anything new until he finished building what he already had. A very relatable and very dangerous phase of the hobby.
The bigger plan: a full campaign weekend
Once it became clear that a quick call wasn’t happening easily, Michał proposed something much more ambitious: a full weekend meetup at his place in the 10–12 July window.
The idea was great and honestly exactly the kind of thing we love doing:
- play the campaign intro,
- plan the map layout,
- agree on the final rules,
- make all the public dice rolls that should happen with everyone present,
- and maybe even start the first or second round.
The vision wasn’t necessarily to jump straight into full duels, but to make it an official, proper kickoff with everyone there from day one.
And because one event is never enough, Michał also floated adding a small one-day tournament on top of that. The rough concept was either:
- 1250-point games, three battles each with pairings drawn in Champions Hub,
- or, if that felt too big, faster 500-point games where everyone could potentially play everyone in a single day.
There was even talk of inviting Marek to bring the number up to six and avoid byes.
And then reality attacked again
Just as the plan started sounding real, Andrzej reminded us that he would be on Mallorca from 5 to 15 July.
At that point the campaign kickoff idea hit the classic wall: if the whole point is that everyone should be there for the first day, then missing one person means postponing the proper start.
Michał’s reaction was, let’s say, heartfelt.
Still, the conclusion was sensible: the campaign itself should wait until Andrzej gets back, but a smaller tournament could still happen earlier, even if not everyone was available.
That led to the actually important next step: instead of improvising forever, we really need to lock in a date that works for everyone and get it into calendars well in advance.
More schedule confusion, naturally
The 10–12 July weekend then ran into more complications:
- Wilini had duty on the 11th.
- There was some confusion over whether Marta and Oliwia were going away on the 11–12th or on the 7th.
- Pegie said he would most likely be out of Warsaw for the whole 10–12 weekend.
- Staś, in contrast, was in Warsaw and available — which he correctly noted did not help much on its own.
So the big all-hands campaign launch was effectively off the table for that weekend.
Plan B: maybe a smaller tournament anyway
By the end of the discussion, the most realistic fallback was a smaller four-player event, with Michał potentially inviting a few extra friends who might want to check out whether they liked the format.
Honestly, that sounds pretty good too. Not every hobby plan has to begin with a perfect grand opening. Sometimes the best move is just to get some games in, test the waters, and keep momentum going until everyone can make the proper campaign start together.
That’s where we left it: campaign kickoff postponed for the sake of having the full crew present, but the idea of a smaller event still very much alive.
And if nothing else, at least there’s hobby progress, army lists, and the usual chaotic optimism pushing things forward.
Where we are now
Right now the state of play is:
- the campaign is still happening,
- we want everyone present for the official start,
- the original July 10–12 idea didn’t line up,
- and a smaller tournament or intro event may still happen sooner if enough people are free.
Which, to be fair, is a very authentic beginning for any group campaign.
We’ll just call this phase narrative setup.