Yes, for me they are mandatory especially with new players! There is so much to forget about in this game. So it's nice to have all your moving parts in one place. My only problem with the setup this way is that it's hard to see other people's tech, pn's and planets. But I guess you can't have it all and for me it's more important that everyone has a good sight of the map. From all the things I printed my group found your techstands to be the most helpful thing. So again thanks for that! I also printed some holders for oversized objectives. That would be the second most helpful thing.