Why can't WE play that?

                "Why can't WE play that?"

                That was the response my buddy Steve blurted out when I told him what we had played when he was away at Gencon.  He and Chris, the regular host of my Tuesday night gaming session had traveled to Indianapolis and in their absence I had thrown out the question to the usual suspects – “anyone want to head down to my place instead?”  My wife and daughter were due to be out of town, a nice convergence of events.  When only Kyle (Keeper of All Games Ancient) responded I opened discussion on two-player games we could potentially play.  He owns War of the Ring (the first one), he owns Starship Troopers (the first one), and I own about a dozen wargames big and small that never hit the table because our group’s dynamic just doesn’t allow for it to happen.  But when I told him that my 13-year-old son might want to sit in on some of it he responded, “my son was interested in throwing down the hammer with a Heroscape battle if you're interested and can set up a board by then.”  All three of my boys were suddenly in the mix, and a map big enough to cover six place-settings was laid down on the dining room table in short order.  2400 points of Heroscape monsters would spend a short moment staring each other down, then would rush across the field of tiles just purchased at a local flea market, heads down and weapons flailing.