Can't play offline without updating

[Xehh II]

Hey, not sure if this is the right place to post this but since the FOTS and it's patch are the cause I just chose here.

Anyway to my problem: Why is it that steam or Sega or CA or whoevers fault it is, make the game unplayable OFFLINE without updating?
I don't have enough monthly internet usage to update or buy FOTS but not letting me play normal Sogun 2 or ROTS in offline mode kinda sucks.
Is there anyway around this so I can play Shogun 2 without waiting 2 or 3 months to update?

[Lord of the Isles]

Since I came back to playing RotS a month or so ago I've been trying an experiment. Steam isn't running on startup and before I manually start it I disable my network connection. Then I play. Then I exit Steam before re-enabling the network. So far this has worked, though some discussions in forums a year or two ago about Steam's desire to 'phone home' even when in the humourously named 'offline mode' lead me to believe that it might stop working at some point. We will see.

[Sp4]

Piracy protection ftw =D

And I think it is Steam's fault.

[Xehh II]

I know this is bad, bad thread necromancy but I though I should say I still haven't been allowed to play Shogun 2 or anything since my original post. I miss it. Darn 25GB update!

[Peasant Phill]

I know this is bad, bad thread necromancy but I though I should say I still haven't been allowed to play Shogun 2 or anything since my original post. I miss it. Darn 25GB update!

Have you already asked in the Apothecary (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?13-Apothecary)?

[Xehh II]

Thanks, but this isn't a technical problem or anything, I'm just complaining about the fact that steam forces you to update the game before you can play it(and I was right in the middle of an epic campaign too), which I don't think is fair, there should be an option to play without the forced 25GB download that I just can't afford(yes, yes, I'm poor and live in a country where internet is stupidly expensive). Currently I have downloaded something like 20,000 MB of 25,892.2MB. Only 5.9GB to go! Which, of course means I have to wait another 20 days and pay another 60-70 bucks worth of internet or something.

[I_damian]

Piracy protection ftw =D

And I think it is Steam's fault.

Meanwhile the actual pirates play it freely with the DRM removed.

[Gray_Lensman]

You have to already be in "offline mode" in order to play without an update coming after the update release. i.e. Leave your STEAM connection in "offline mode" all the time UNTIL you are ready to accept any updates. Once an update starts, it can no longer be played until the update is complete. This effectively means you can't purchase any other STEAM programs during the offline period also.