I'm trying out Forge of Empires right now, and I'm quite surprised to find that I'm enjoying it. It's something completely different. I don't want to pay for the ingame currency, and it doesn't look like I have to. Instead I'm giving my city orders and then check back several hours later, or even a day later, to receive a substantial amount of produced resources. In between I make time to build newly unlocked buildings, re-arrange buildings for space efficiency (akin to anno), complete quests, train units, attack/retaliate/interact with neighbour cities, do research and fight a few battles if needed.
The idea that periodically over the span of several months I'll grow a small city from the stone age through to a massive one in some futuristic age, small increments at time, is appealing to me. Perhaps it's just the novelty of it atm, and it might wear off eventually. But for now I'm pretty fascinated by it.