Hi all. Recently I've had an itch to play a city builder or managerial style strategy game. I'm looking for something relaxing and fun (and hopefully not too dated). Moderate challenge is good, but I don't really enjoy very hard or complex strategy games, they go over my head.

I guess the Caesar/Pharaoh/Zeus series should be a safe bet? Zeus seems to be the best regarded of these, would you guys recommend it or is there a better one?

Here's a list of games that GOG labels managerial, though it does seem to omit some: http://www.gog.com/games##search=managerial&sort=rating

Thanks!

Of course Zeus/Pharaoh is a must (I prefer Pharaoh though), Theme Hospital and RollerCoaster Tycoon are a must-plays as well.

Literally thousands hours of pure fun :)

Personally, I really like Pharaoh, though I haven't played Zeus or Caesar enough to make much of a judgement on them. Banished also seems great, but I haven't been able to play that yet, and the idea is just getting your town/village to survive for as long as possible rather than improving it and reaching set goals.

Tropico and Zeus are the best in my opinion.

I haven't tried that many but I really like Children of the Nile because it's very relaxing and not too challenging (at least in the beginning).

Caesar III is the oldest and a bit unpolished. Pharaoh and Zeus improved many things without losing anything significant so I would suggest choosing one of those. Zeus, however, cannot be simply treated as enhanced version of Pharaoh because those two games focus on different things:

Pharaoh: building pyramids and other monuments is where the game truly shines. Be aware that it takes A LOT of time and effort to finish such a project (quite realistic, isn't it?;) but it's extremely rewarding to watch how the work progress. The game also focuses on managing your citizens. They have very complex needs and satisfying all of theme is very difficult. Food production is also worth mentioning. The fertility of the soil depends on Nile flooding. If it's big - you'll get a lot of crops. If it's bad - you'll just get some scraps. So you have to keep it in mind and try to have some reserves in your granaries.

Zeus: temples are much faster to build, the amount of resources and services that your population requires is significantly decreased. So what is the main focus of this game? The campaign mode is divided into several adventures and it's a good name: you can expect a lot of events happening during the gameplay. A mythological monster may attack you city and you will have to call a hero to help you. But first you'll have to meet his requirements and it's not always easy. You will see gods talking a walk in your city. They may bless you but they can also curse you or even try to destroy your city.

If you prefer slow paced game with a focus on building awesome monuments get Pharaoh. If dealing with unique and sometimes unexpected events is appealing to you choose Zeus.

Capitalism Plus and Capitalism 2. They are great business sims:). And the stuff mentioned above by others.

SimCity 2000 perhaps? Although it would be nice if they could add 3000 and 4 as well.

Ok, Something easier not too dated...
Caesar is kind of hard for me without roadblock and elimination of employee seeker compare to the later iteration...
Tropico 3 or Roller Coaster Tycoon maybe a bit relaxing (despite lesser in depth) and match your taste.

Tropico 3 is half politic half city building, Roller coaster is simply thematic / fun focus sim which has very good variety of buildings to go on (go get more user made custom rides :). If you go Roller Coaster you can choose between 2 or 3. 3 has a lot more function like 1st person view from the rides etc and better graphic for modern age but 2 has simpler UI, better terraforming, simpler feeling that much prefer by nostalgic players.

Excellent info. Thanks! I didn't know their focus was so different. +1

By the way, I wish GOG would sell Majesty (or Paradox titles in general). Majesty offers a very refreshing look at the genre (if it can be considered the same genre at all).

Another by the way: the OP might want to take a look at Banished, a game recently released here. It looks great and seem to meet all the requirements he mentions.

SC 2K is still the king of the hill.

Why isn't Emperor: Rise of the middle kingdom on gog yet?

Thanks for advice, everyone - especially Ghorpm for highlighting the differences between Pharaoh and Zeus. I think I'll go with one of them, probably Zeus, because I don't have much time right now and a game that moves at a bit faster pace fits better with that. Tropico doesn't sound bad at all, either, I had forgotten about that one.

Yeah, it does look pretty good, but I've heard that it's pretty tough and the focus is on surviving. At the moment I'm looking for a more relaxed experience. Thanks still for bringing it up, I may have to try it at some point.

not enough voting in wishlist? :)
that's my top in city building, 3rd best overall game behind SMAC and MOM.

You have made the right choice. Zeus is the way to go.