That's what I get Peter, if I disconnect the wire (Airplane Mode), and / or disable the online mode. Once connected to the net, the UPlay app apparently re-enables the "cloud" sync. But I do NOT have issues running TWoS, though I do have that odd combination of a UPlay SH4 and Steam SH5... It looks like Ubi is attempting to emulate the Steam way of checking license validity online each time you start the game, but they put a few bytes in the executable to make it easier on themselves...
