Cant get the mod to start (yes i looked at the sticky thread)

Ok so I open the launcher and it comes up with the window for start selected mod, I click EBII and click the start selected mod button for it to come up with this message
"Running 'medieval2.exe --features.mod=mods/EBII'"
"Error running 'medieval2.exe': The system cannot find the file specified"
I have already started the game vanilla so its not that. I've looked into the file which is stated a few lines up \steamlibrary\steamapps\etc etc etc and the exe file is in there
(though it is just Medieval2 not Medieval2.exe) so i tried renaming it to have .exe on the end but that means it doesnt even load up vanilla so I changed it back and vanilla works again.
any clues as to why it cant spot the file that is so obviously there?

Many thanks

Ok so had another look at the launcher and i cant actually launch vanilla Med 2 from it either only from steam itself so i assume its an issue with the actual launcher

Is there really nothing to be done?

I dont have steam myself, but I remember several threads here on the forum explaining how to get a mod to run with steam, just search for it...