<Snipped quote by BangoSkank>
I've heard nothing but good things about the Mount & Blade series. Though I'm not the most experienced with the management/simulation aspect. (Never really played most of those games for long.) Maybe if I see it on sale sometime, I'll pick it up.
It doesn't have all that much management unless you want to be an Emperor/King/etc.
The most fun I ever had with it was deciding I was just going to go around battling Raiders/Bandits/Sellswords/Sea Raiders and do very little but kill them, capture them and sell them into slavery, and sell all the loot I get off the battles.
You set up a long of Infantry with a long of archers behind them and then you take off with a bunch of cavalry to harass the enemy and eventually drag them into your infantry. Use a club or mallet or other blunt weapon to capture them or a sword/axe/spear/Lance to kill.
Jolly good fun.
You can cheat up a character too to make the early game easier. Give yourself a stat boost and a few thousand denar. Say you're not a common pauper but a foreign lord come to Calradia to fuck some shit up. Olden Days style. Ya heard.