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Thinking of getting Armada but would appreciate some guidance on what extras are/aren't required.

First up, definitely getting the 2 player box - that seems like a good start:

https://www.manticgames.com/games/armada/getting-started-armada/armada-two-player-starter-set/

But what about extras? Do I need the acrylic bases? Are they different to the ones that come in the starter set/faction starters?

https://www.manticgames.com/games/armada/armada-accessories/

I assume it is worth getting the acrylic templates but what about the MDF ship card trays? How many of them do I need?

The acrylic bases are 100% optional. The ships all come with MDF bases of the appropriate size. The fancy acrylic ones are more for if you don't want to mess with trying to paint/sculpt water and just wanna glue the ship down (though you'd want to paint the ship entirely prior to attaching it). The acrylic templates are nice, but the rulebook/starter comes with cardboard ones that are plenty sufficient.

The MDF ship card trays are also not required. They can be kinda neat I suppose, but you don't have to have them. If you did want them, the number you'd need kinda depends on what point size you're playing, so it could be anywhere from 3-8 depending. I'd say hold of on those for sure for now, until you determine if you really like the game and want to go in.

2 Player box is good if you want either faction. If you don't, the starter + booster fleet box for whichever faction(s) you do like plus the rulebook is really all you need. You might be interested in picking up the Magic deck if you want to add in wizards (and you'd need one deck per player), but it's not required either (and playing without a wizard versus a fleet with a wizard isn't really unbalanced).

Very useful info, thanks very much!

What makes the Armada bases interesting is that they're already printed with the same pattern as the play mat. Now, that's okay...but you're paying €25 (€35 on their website) for 10 bases. Oooff. So what I did was to go to Etsy and searched for acrylic bases and found someone making bases specifically in the sizes for Armada. For something like €40, with shipping, I'm getting 40 bases. I'll have to paint 'em myself, but I've already got everything I need to do that.