The Anno series is great and I'm expecting Banished to be fantastic too. Unlike most other resource management sims it seems like it's actually challenging and it's easy to reach a fail state. Anno and Settlers are mostly limited by how much land is available for new buildings. Having to plan several years ahead just to make plum ale is weirdly captivating.
I adored the first game and setting up trade routes was fun in 1404. I watched some guy's Youtube series of the Imperator scenario from 1404 Venice. Highest difficulty, aggressive AI opponents, huge map, etc. and that just kind of put a lid on the series for me. With the exception of the combat I had done everything he had, just not as efficiently and seeing it deflated any kind of desire to play more. I looked at the other scenarios and immediately lost interest in puzzling out how to do them. I dunno, I think those games are just lost on me now. Not even 2070 seemed to be all that different from what I've seen in the demo.
I do need to try out the Settlers games though, I somehow managed to evade them for all this time.
Also, I think my video card just died. Will have to get a cheap replacement until I can afford a more permanent upgrade.
