Dumb Newbie Questions on Civ 5 Startup

[gunamoi1]

Okay I'm a newbie.
I should have had a look at the web site and read these forums before I bought the game.
If I had I never would have bought it, but I have been a die hard Civ player since version 1, I've enjoyed all the previous versions, and was caught up by the pretty packaging!
I finally figured out how to manually edit the .ini file to stop the start-up video, which I am heartily sick of now. With previous versions you could just hit the escape key, or changed a check box on the options screen!
But now I want to know what can I do about this Steam thing.
The box says " Initial installation requires one-time Internet connection for Steam authentication".
But I am finding that every single time that I run the game, it is asking me for steam username and password and accessing the internet.
I do not want to play multiplayer, I do not want to save stuff to cloud, I have my own PC and hard disk, I don't need any of that other stuff.
I understand the need for piracy protection, but not everybody has an internet connection, or not one that's always available.
Is there a way I can play this game without internet connection, or is the statement that the game only needs a "one-time" internet connection in fact a false and misleading statement designed to fraudulently swindle fans of the civilization series out of their hard earned cash?

[QuantumTarantino]

You misread.

It didnt state that you need steam only once, that is an ongoing authentication.

It stated you need an Internet connection, only once.

If you need to sever this PC from the internet, steam has an "Offline" mode