Other than that, a game like say, the Total War games, but allows you to build, name, and develop a completely unique empire from scratch.
i've been designing\working for years, though mostly slacking, on a mod for warcraft 3 that does something like that. it's not as in depth as TW, but it's much deeper than wc3 itself
here's a brief summary of the finished game as i envision it
you'd start out as a city state belonging to one of four cultures, northern, inspired by celts and vikings, southern, inspired by egypt and medieval middle east, eastern, inspired by byzantium and ancient middle eastern cultures, like summeria and babylon, and west, inspired in rome and grece
battles themselves would be somewhat hands off and abstracted, it would be more focused in diplomacy and empire management than actual battles. you'd conquer cities, define and balance their production goals between farming, manufacture, military suport, infrastructure, trading and science. Each city could produce and trade unique luxury items and rare materials for bonuses in battle, production, and moralle, and to pamper your favourite nobles.
You would have to juggle your vassal noble houses, these would provide you with commanders and administrators of varying competences, that would have an internal diplomacy and hold grudges for each other, and you'd sometimes have to chose between appointing an incompetent administrator from a powerful noble house, or a competent administrator from a minor house and risk losing favor with the most powerful house in your capital city which is also the family your favorite comander belongs to
you'd chose the equipment and training of your troops too, you could arm a mob of peasants with spears instantly, or recruit an elite unit of spearmen heavily armored and trained in advanced formations, that would take years to train, cost more in maintenance, but bring honor and pride to the cities population, while the conscripted mob would create unrest in the city they were recruited and make your empire look worse in the eyes of your peers