What's deemed the "best" Settlers game to play nowadays?

I used to play Settlers a long time ago, and I'm starting to get back into gaming after 20 years out.

Recently I've played a bit of Command & Conquer & AoE4 but I'm old school and like a slow build with a battle at the end, rather than being rushed and the game being over in 15 minutes.

I was looking at New Allies and concensus seems to be "avoid with a big stick" so I was wondering what people are playing/recommend.

Ideally I want something with decent graphics and an online play community, but also a decent offline skirmish so I can save and come back to it (when parenting).