I don't know if there are any bugs, but I certainly remember getting endlessly frustrated about my consistent failure to keep a good enough food supply to have the best houses, yes, as well as a few scenarios (Lugdunum comes to mind...) that are a gigantic pain in the ass.

Pharaoh is the successor game to Caesar III, uses the same engine and largely the same gameplay, but obviously set in Egypt and with some other changes. I've only played the demo, and for all of perhaps two hours, so don't have much of an opinion on how it compares to Caesar III. I recently chanced upon a description of Patrician 3 (on GOG - it costs all of three bucks), which seemed to be something somewhat comparable but in the Middle Ages.

Of course, those are all old games. Tropico IV that LOS mentioned is a better choice if you want something kind of recent... haven't played any Tropico game, but as I understand the premise, you're a Caribbean dictator building up your island - like Caesar III, it can be mostly peaceful or sometimes it can involve violence.