My sister bought me for Christmas in 1962 Joseph Moreschauser's "How to play Wargames in Miniature." That was it. My interest in chess (which I was working upwards toward expert) and other hobbies like model railroading got shoved to the side. In a week I had gotten some cheap plastic 20mm knock-off's of Britains 54mm ancient miniatures and was doing ancient gaming.
From Moreschauser I discovered Donald Featherstone, and a few years later came Charles Grant and Peter Young et all.
I also had discovered Tactics II and Boardgaming which supplanted my interest in the mainstream games from Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers, which got pushed to the side.
Since this is out of the Old School section I might as well tell you that now, 50 years later I am rediscovering those old Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley Board Games and finding them highly adaptable to wargames. For example, I have recently made a Naval Game of the Age of Sail which uses a lot of the elements of the old Milton bradley "Buccaneer" game (called Yo-Ho-Ho), and have even started a whimsical "Battleopoly" game which uses the Monopoly game format (with a few additions) to run my 1880's naval campaign for the late Ironclad period (using my own rules, "If you build it, It will Sink."
A friend of mine, we are both interested in WWII naval games are using the stats from Victory in the Pacific, and War at sea, and a few expansion kits to gin up a new set of WWII rules that are simple and fast and fun and use no ship cards. We're calling it TITGAUSUOAYCT (Pronounced Titehgausuohahyct) Whis stands for "This is the game Admiral Ugaki Screwed up on, AND you can too!)
I only bring this up as an example of how these old games can still inspire and intrigue