The Call to Power series, particular the first, seems to have a bad reputation from many Civilization players.  I look at CCTP and CTP2 as innovative new games in the genre.  Even as the Sid Meier line of Civ games continued, CTP2 still offers many new features that have gone unmatched.    Examples:

• Army combat (multiple units attacking multiple units simultaneously, as an army)
• Public Works - building roads and other terrain improvement by alloting city production into a fund- rather than having a unit do ti
• Future Techs - including the technology to build underwater and space cities.