Thanks for the reply. Umm- multi player would be outside my scope at the moment 
One query- if I load this onto the laptop do I need to have an Internet connection to play? I am asking as I will be going overseas later this year and the Internet probably won’t be available.
No. You can always go into off-line mode. You don’t need a constant connection to play.
Occasionally games will use their own DRM on top of the steam authentication. It’s dumb and useless and only pisses off the customers, but it does give you the limitation of those games. For example, for the new Ubisoft games like Assassin’s Creed 2 with the retarded always-connected DRM, that’s built into the program and so you’d still need to be connected even when playing through the steam version. If there’s a DRM on a game that’s more restrictive than steam authentication, it will be listed as “third party DRM” on the game’s purchase page, alongside publisher, release date, etc.