Byzantium in 1.5, is it meant to be like this?

[RobRoy3]

No rules, but it is still a cheap trick to avoid a war with Ottomans, isn't it?

One man's shameless cheat, is another man's cheap trick, is another man's clever exploit, is another man's brilliant strategy.

Semantics. Yes, you cannot go head to head with the Ottomans, as Byzantium, on their terms and expect to win.

And, conspiracy theories aside, this is surely a bug

 

[TheBloke]

Seems like with every patch, they are making it harder and harder to play Byzantium rendering any walkthroughs in patches past useless. I guess they are trying to make Byz pro-player only nation.

That's not unreasonable given what happened to them in history!