Master of Magic is easy to learn and the gameplay holds up to this day. Even the old graphics retain a great charm. I think any Civilization is beginner-friendly at the easiest difficulty levels, where you can ignore most of the more complicated features and just build or pick whatever feels coolest, while you get acquainted with the game.

Sword of the Stars is actually made for beginners, since it has in-game video tutorials for every aspect of the game's turns.
On top of that, it has nice graphics, the best singleplayer customization after the civilization games and the races seem cool. Flying space dolphins are GOTY in my book.

There's a large degree of separation between a 4X and a GS. I recommend SMAC since you were already looking at it.

well. have to tell that on lower difficulties it turns into a plot-oriented game with the base building and researching.

https://freeorion.org/index.php/Main_Page

Some real time strategies let you stop time and give orders paused then resume.

I just finished yet another round of Master of Orion. Simple economic model lets you concentrate on the strategy, fighting and ship designs. Old but good but the RNG can sometimes screw you or your opponents over. My game ended in a hundred turns due to being way too lucky this time.

Stellaris is definitely a fantastic 4x game, but not for the beginner. I've played quite a few 4x games and still took ~10 hours to feel like I have a reasonable grasp of the mechanics.

I find 4x and "Grand Strategy" games are very different. I love 4x games. I enjoy them. I don't suck at them. "Grand strategy" games, I always try. I always get bored with, and I usually suck at them from that boredom.

Age of Wonders 3 is a good start for a 4x game, except it skews heavily toward "plot" and "rush rush!"

Honestly, one of my favorite recommendation 4x to start with is currently Stars in Shadow. (https://www.gog.com/game/stars_in_shadow). It's at that sweet spot of playability with enough complexity to how complex games can get. It's also not too "hard", but can get tricky. It's also actually fun. But, more importantly: it's shorter than a lot of 4x games to go start to finish in a complete session. That's important, since a lot of games in the genre really start to crawl as you play them longer.

For "grand strategy" games, the only one I've found myself able to play a whole game of without snoozing andor quitting is Evil Bank Manager (https://www.gog.com/game/evil_bank_manager). Again, for a lot of the reasons I suggested for Stars in Shadow, but for the other genre.

Some thoughts from the ones I've played. May or may not be useful.

All the Master of Orions are good, except 3. Attempt no landings there.
All the civs are good. They're just different flavours of the same thing. 5 & 6 diverge a bit though (not in a bad way).
Alpha Centauri is one of the best games ever (imo), but holy hell is it not a good pick for your 1st 4x.

Sins of a Solar Empire
Hybrid 4x/RTS that is entirely MP/skirmish. There is no campaign, just endless random matches.
Not a huge amount of depth, but what there is is reasonably engaging.
Very good for sitting back and watching lots of ships pew each other, if you're so inclined.
Recommend getting the "Rebellion" DLC at minimum as it adds a substantial amount of content.

Heagemonia: Legions of Iron
Another 4x/RTS hybrid but focusing on very small groups rather than huge armies.
Has a decent campaign, and an interesting approach to research.
Infamous for having a sound system bug that can randomly dump you out of the game.
Would still recommend despite this.

Distant Worlds
A kind of weird hybrid of 4x/Grand Strat. Has appoximately a million details about everything, which initially sounds overwhelming.
It's fairly unique though, in that you can fully automate every single part of the game if you like, and the AI will do a decent job of playing if you only want to concentrate on one or two things. Or just learn how things work.
Ship designer is good, but has a lot of superfluous data that can potentially be confusing.
There are multiple options for "stories" to be enabled at the start of the game which affect what appears in the galaxy etc.
The galaxy can be huge btw. Full of planets and moons all orbiting in realtime.
No MP option - pure single player.
Imo overpriced for what it is though, wait for a sale if interested.

Stars in Shadow
An indie 4x in the spirit of MoO2, with a similar focus on small but highly specialised fleets and some much improved UI streamlining.
Currently a "slow burn" development with infrequent but substantive updates.
Has amazing soundtrack.
No MP option - pure single player.
Highly recommended.

Of those, I would suggest Stars in Shadow.
It's fairly simple so it shouldn't be too overwhelming, and it has enough depth in it to be fairly enagaing for a good while.
But it's also the cheapest by far. Last time I checked it was single figures cheap.
It has 1 DLC, but not having that will only lock out 1 choice for starting the game so you're not really missing anything
and will be able to evaluate it well enough as it stands.

I agree fully with previous posters saying that there's a huge difference between GS and 4X.
I play 4X games, because GS only involves War and Politics as possibly victory conditions.

My own favorites are Distant Worlds Universe, Sword of the Stars 1, Space Empires IV and Imperium Galactica 2.

As for easy entries..Hmmm maybe some borderline ones.
Sins of a Solar Empire is an RT4X. A fast-paced RTS with light trappings of 4X.
Stellaris. A Grand Strategy game with trappings of a 4X.
Stars in Shadow is one of the few rare good remakes of MoO2 (Though MoO2 is overrated).
Master of Orion 3. Yes, I like it. It removes much of the micro-management and tedium..maybe too much.

My top recommendation would be Distant Worlds Universe though.
You can customize it to play itself, or you can choose to take care of only one or more aspects of the gameplay.. Or do it all. It fits everyone from beginner to expert.

Stars in Shadow is my favorite too. Not too complex, not too simple. Illustrated art assets and great music.

Hi, JakobFel!

I would really recommend Civilization series as a grand introduction for 4X genre. My favorite Civs are 3 and 4, but I would suggest to try Civilization 5 first, because it is a best beginner friendly 4X game in my opinion.

Thea series might be fun too, but it's 4X elements are very limited.

I've been following the game since release and it has been great, Persian expansion out soon as well. Patches have greatly improved things and I like the kingdom/ government model.

Yep, I'm also looking forward to the new dlc that the game's about to have. Btw, do you think the game's normal scenario's starting year would also be moved back to 550 BCE as well, or will it only apply to the Persia scenario? I honestly don't mind to have the normal scenario to last longer if it means getting the additional features that the devs promised to have in the Persia scenario also be added to the normal scenario.

I highly recommend Star Wars - Empire At War and Sword of the Stars. They're very good and they gently give you an introduction to the genre.

For a non-space game, I'd say start with Civ V for turn-based and Rome:Total War (the first one). It could be argued that Medieval:Total War is better but I found Rome easier to get into as a newb.

Have to wait and see I guess, there is something new about the expansion currently on Slitherines twitter page.