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[Shadowlord]

I'll join in on recommending Crusader Kings II. It's pretty great (if it's not broken). (I have not played EUIV or Victoria II, though)

FreeCiv is somewhat difficult to go back to after playing the later versions of Civ3+, but it does have an Android version, so that's a plus.

I can't stand to play FreeCiv at all, and one big reason is because the UI is awful. It isn't even a matter of the later games improving past it - Civ II's UI is functional and informative, whereas with FreeCiv all your important messages, diplomatic communications, research completed messages, etc, all get displayed in different tabs at the bottom of the screen. There are options to turn them into popups, but it feels like it was an afterthought. (The other reason is the same reason I hardly play any Civ games anymore - they all seem to pale in comparison to SMAC)

[Donuts]

Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker kinda counts, I guess. CK2 and EU4 are good too.

[Baijiu]

I didn't see Immortal Cities: Children Of The Nile in the above list - you might enjoy that, especially if you enjoy things like Pharoah and Banished.    It goes relatively cheap over at GoG, from what I recall.

I LOVE this game. There hasn't been a city-builder like it since.

 There's a day/night schedule and people live full-on simulated lives. In spring, farmers rush onto the floodplain to plant and struggle to get the harvest off the floodplain in the fall before the Nile floods. You can tell just by looking at your shops if they're prosperous or not (tattered, empty storefronts versus shining and full ones). Your villagers have children grow up, get married and die. So does your Pharaoh, and a critical part of the game is making sure your current Pharaoh has a place to be interred when he dies.

Too bad Tilted Mill hasn't made anything as good since then.

[Gigalith]

C-Evo?

Its main idea is to be a deterministic Civ clone where the AI plays by the exact same rules as the player. For example, there's no way to make another civilization like you more, any more than they can make you like them more.

I like it better than the original in many ways, mostly because the AI isn't pretending. It plays by the exact same rules as you and will use them solely for your destruction, such as when it will break its alliance to rush you and utterly destroy your civilization.

Seconding the Master of Magic recommendation. It's on GOG, IIRC, and it's well worth it. The fact that so many have attempted MoM-clones shows how good the original was.

[hikarikami]

Deadlock 1 and Deadlock 2 are both sort of civilization builders. Kind of like a cross between a 4x game and Simcity, although it's a little half-baked. I still enjoyed them when I was younger though.

[Astral]

Updated the main post (for real this time!) with the list, now alphabetically. I snagged Grand Ages: Rome for about $2.50 off Steam during the sale, so no big deal if it isn't that good.

[Dorsidwarf]

There's one called Pandora: First Contact which is supposedly a low budget game like Civilization Beyond Earth.

There's an old game called Rise and Rule of Ancient Empires but it wasn't that good.

Warlock: Master of the Arcane had a sequel.

I hear Pandora: First Contact is pretty much Beyond Earth in old-civ style.

[newsamsam]

does Planet Explorer count?

[Sinistar]

Oh, mentioning Planet Explorers reminded me on Unclaimed World. You are managing a group of people crashed-landed on an alien world, hoping to turn it into a habitable colony. Early access though and apparently still quite unfinished, but could have potential (from videos I saw, didn't play it myself).

Speaking of space colony sims, there's also Maia. Early access again, but has potential (again).
There's the aptly named Space Colony HD you might like.
And then there's also good old Startopia, but I think this one is more in vein of a Theme Park/Dungeon Keeper? Dunno, someone will surely know more.

Oh, and Dungeon Keeper 1/2 or also quite fun, though I don't know if this isn't too far from what you are looking for.

And since we are in fantasy setting already and you like DF, have you considered Gnomoria or maybe Craft the World?

[Bouchart]

There's also Majesty and Majesty 2.  Has anyone mentioned them yet?

[Carlos Gustavos]

Imperialism 1 & 2 and Colonization.

In Imperialism you start with a budding great power. A large part is building up your country's infrastructure and industry to compete with the other great powers. There's also a lot of selling and buying of goods. The first one takes place in sort of 19th century industrialism and the second one is in age of sail and conquest of the new world.

Colonization is about building colonies in the new world. I suppose you might have played it already if you've played all the Civilization games. You start with just one ship and two colonists. You produce goods to sell to Europe so you can buy stuff you need and eventually become self-sufficient and strong enough to fight for independence. There are three varying versions available: the old original, the remake using Civ4's engine and open source FreeCol. I went back to the original after trying the other two once.

[Bouchart]

Imperialism 1 & 2 are good choices.

Interestingly I find the original Colonization to be better than Civ 4: Colonization.  The mechanics are less broken in the original.

[Intrinsic]

The magnificent Utopia, and it's sequel K240.

<3 the music.

[Sonlirain]

Another 2 to throw in.

Startopia (it's more of a space station management game but still close.) and Fragile Allegiance (you lead a mining expedition into a asteroid belt simply packed with alien races and while everyone (with one exeption) is part of a federation this is a remote corner of the galaxy and accidents can happen at times...)

[Shadowlord]

FreeCol is an open-source remake of the original Colonization. Last I checked, it was considerably more user-friendly than FreeCiv (but since I never played the original Colonization, I don't know how well it compares).