The Tropico games are a perfectly pleasant place to start. They get progressively easier and more casual.
The Anno games are my all around favorite. 1404 is my favorite, but honestly 1800 is probably the best.
Banished spawned an entire genre unto itself even as it hasn't aged gracefully. These survival sims have a lot more "bite" to them. Try Planetbase for a more streamlined experience. Timberborn if you like physics. Also have heard good things about Farthest Frontier.
And then there's Frostpunk which is an all-around amazing experience. The theming and mood rivals any first-person cinematic shooter.
Your people in Banished die. A lot. So unlike most other economic sims, building your city is not the primary goal, population survival is. And you have to balance population and resources pretty intimately.
Calling Banished a tarted up Settlers would be similar to calling Dark Souls a tarted up Zelda game.
I'm still an old blowhard and think Tropico 1 is still the best. It was so tough that you had to become a fascist every time. Which made it a harder game but also a much sharper commentary.
