HK_01 said:
At least in Empire they didn't attack you for no reason anymore
Yes, they did. A lot. And it made even less sense than in Medieval. Any Ottoman game I started, I wound up getting attacked by the British, for no reason at all. I never held any teritorries that they needed, I had good relations with them. Same in my Russian games. Also, trusted allies would attack me without provocation all the time. At least in Medieval 2 I could tell who was going to attack me. At least the AI in Medieval 2 was capable of laying a proper siege and not piss all over itself...
And as for the whole "unsubstantiated rumor" thing, I just linked an article on Kotaku, which is basically one of the biggest games news sites. There's also the Rock Paper Shotgun article linked a few posts earlier and that is also a fairly trusted news site.
Sure, it's rumors, but at least it's something. I'm guessing you're just sore you didn't get the time period you wanted...