You don't need the mirrors, some times it makes it easier to pick out fabric, but not by any means essential,
And if you have a straight ruler that has the 60 degree line on it you are good to go there as well, the special ruler can just make cutting the triangles easier. That is all
The piecing can go very quickly for this, you figure that there isn't many seams, to start with you only do 4 per block.