Campaign Question

Just got NTW for Christmas and have a question, as the manual doesn't say much and I didn't see any "Ask Questions Here" thread. I also have Medieval 2 and Empire, so I'm not a TW novice.

For my first campaign I'm playing Northern Italy (assumed it would be easier to start with story campaigns) but soon will move on to a Coalition one. I know that you can only play 4 factions initially, but is it like previous games where you can unlock a nation by defeating it? I know the minor ones can't be played (sadly this was taken away in Empire ) but can ones like the Ottoman Empire be unlocked?

I'm still disappointed that CA only lets us play the big guys now, because I always liked to start small in Medieval 2 (Denmark ftw! ). But it would be nice if we could at least play a more diverse non central European faction like Ottomans or Sweden, and they weren't exactly pushovers at the time either.

Only with mods. You can play any faction in any total war game, even emergents with some simple mods.