Failed to initialise steam!

[Don in the North]

After patch 4 came in, I started getting this error:
Total war launcher - "Failed to initialize steam! Are you running steam?"

As I was running it directly from steam, yes it was running. However, I realized it was likely Radious mod conflicting with new patch, so I removed it. Still didn't work, so I deleted the folder UI and all the .pack files in /data and verified install.

Half a dozen hours later, it had finished and I could play.
But now I was -279 in food (from +120, thanks alot whoever coded that crap) so I got the latest in Radious, installed it. Played it but the food was still in the minus so I said bugger it, ill just cut provinces' tax and see if it balances out in a few turns.
BUT!
Problem came back.
Luckily I took the liberty of creating a backup folder full of the .packs and the UI folder, to save me the 7 hour downtime.

That didn't work. I just finished verifying the game after I put the untouched UI/.packs in their original places, and moved the non-untouched ones into backup folder; the game still comes up with this problem listed in first paragraph.

If anyone can help me with this, it would be greatly appreciated. So far, patch 4 has killed the game for me completely.

[Don in the North]

Update: Just ran it again today, runs fine though I've not changed anything beyond whats already stated in this thread. Is anyone else getting this seemingly random bug?

[Don in the North]

Recurring problem. If anyone can help, please do.