I must confess I played Games Workshop's miniatures-based systems as a kid - mainly Epic, WH40K and Space Hulk. I grew out of the hobby though, partly because I discovered alcohol and females, and partly because the games and miniatures became insanely expensive. Having said that, I still buy paints from GWs Citadel line for some of my modeling needs - but they are about twice the price of any other manufacturers products.
The first map and counter based wargame I ever played was based on Arnhem, I cant remeber the name now or who published it, I then forgot about the hobby until a few years back when I stumbled across the Avalanche Press website and bought a game on Plan Gold, the US Rainbow Plan to fight the French in the Carribean. That soon got me hooked again!