Civ is a franchise that I have tried a bunch over the years, but never quite got into due to the barrier to entry with a lot of the mechanics involved. When I finally did with Civ 5, I found a lot of enjoyment trying to strategize the economics of my civs, plan out intricate defenses and invasions, and it was great. However, one thing I find with Civ is that after you play like one or two games, each lasting 10s of hours, you either get bored with the minutia of playing at endgame, where everything is on autopilot and a lot of that early game strategy is lost, or you bump up the difficulty and get wrecked by the overly aggressive AI right at the start. Getting over that hump is what will allow you to enjoy this game for hundreds of hours, because there is that much content and fun to be had with the different nations, victory conditions, map sizes and layouts.

I revisit Civ every now and then because the game is fun to play, I just find myself quitting not long after my enthusiasm fades from spending 2 hours clearing the map because I already won and just need to meet the victory conditions to end the game. A great starting point for 4X strategy games, and bursting with personality, you can easily lose your entire day playing it.