Civ 5 or Civ 6.
I’ve read a couple of Dean’s books and I don’t regret it, but also didn’t find them that good.
Outside a couple of disappointments, everything I’ve read from King has ranged from really good (Salems lot, tommyknockers, etc) to outstanding (the dark tower series, the tailsman).
Don’t get me wrong, the vanilla versions of both games are great. But once you explore the higher end mods, it’s hard to play without them. I would recommend AI+, some of the expanded unit additions and there are some great diplomacy mods. I am not on my computer at the moment, but I’ll DM you tomorrow some of my must haves.