Good World Building Game for Newbie

[MrDNA]

So I've been getting the hankering to play a (what I call) world-building type game: where I need to set up a city, or society, or business, or army or anything really. Something I put work into, play with variables and make it grow. Well, I haven't really done this since the first incarnation of Sim City, so my mind is a little blown by the options and I'm hoping for a little help.

The game I'm looking for would be:

+ fairly intuitive and easy to learn - I don't have tons of time
+ not super difficult
+ and... interesting and fun

Any help guys and gals?

[mauchow]

caesar iv?

[path12]

Children of the Nile comes to mind, as does Tropico, but they are both at least a few years old now. I also wonder if Civ4 might work for what you're saying, even though it's not really a city-builder.

[I. J. Reilly]

Maybe Railroad Tycoon? I haven't played the latest version, but the ones before that were really fun. I don't think it would have much of a learning curve, and you can play it at a pretty fast pace if that's what you're after.

[Critch]

I probably shouldn't recommend something I've never played, but I hear that the latest version of The Settlers (The Settlers:Rise of an Empire) is very good and does away with the crazy micromanagement that put everybody (except the Germans) off previous versions.

It looks pretty too.

[bhlloy]

Damn... Tropico was a fun, unique game. I wish I knew where my copy was.

[CU Tiger]

Anything along these lines available free online.
NOT HACKED VERSIONS but on a free site like a flash gamee?

[path12]

Damn... Tropico was a fun, unique game. I wish I knew where my copy was.

After seeing your post I decided to reinstall and started playing again last night. It still holds up well -- I've got to flip through the manual again though to remember some of the details, but it sucked me right back in -- I know what I'll be playing tonight.

[Atocep]

After seeing your post I decided to reinstall and started playing again last night. It still holds up well -- I've got to flip through the manual again though to remember some of the details, but it sucked me right back in -- I know what I'll be playing tonight.

It holds up very well. I installed it a couple months ago and spent quite a bit of time playing it.

[MrDNA]

Being old isn't necessarily a negative - I could get it cheaper and it would probably run better on my non-too-current machine. Tropico is getting some love in this thread, and Railroad Tycoon was actually one I had already been thinking of. Thanks, guys!

[tarcone]

I loved Imperialism and found it recently online for free (had to do a surve to get 3 free downloads.)
Its a fun game. Not sure if its what you are looking for though.

[SunDevil]

http://www.direct2drive.com/4/252/product/Buy-Patrician-3-Download