Skaeling wiped out before they can be vassalised

[Nebiros]

Playing as Chaos, intending on Awakening all four tribes, wiping out the minor ones, then making Norsca, Wintertooth, Skaeling and Varg my vassals, but every ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ time Norsca ♥♥♥♥♥♥ destroys Skaeling around turn 20 or so.
Now normally that's not a big deal, since you can just conquer a certain settlement and awaken Skaeling, but i'd like to keep them alive instead since if they get wiped out they lose their original leader, Felman Ingersson.
Same goes with Varg, i'd like to keep old mate Surtha Ek the memelord, although he at least has more than 2 starting settlements so he tends to last a bit longer.

[kaher44 [UN]]

I feel your pain I always try to vassalize all 12 Norscan faction to include original and "awakened"

From another post of mine

Originally posted by kaher44 UN:

You can get up to 12 norscan factions as vassels some are awakened and some are the original tribes subjugated. Getting all 12 requires some planned thought, luck and rushing. It use to be easier but now can be harder with Throgg rushing to wipe out the Naglfarlings taking over their territory. If you reconquer Naglfarlings former territories from Throgg you will get one awoken tribe but the other city you can only raze leaving the Naglfarlings extinct.

To get around this I rushed toward Naglfarlings territories with Archaon where usually Throgg has already taken over Naglfarlings territory but a remanent of their faction in the form of a torn up Naglfarling army is on the run from him. I declared war on Throgg and put myself between him and the pursued Naglfarlings. I then babysit the Naglfarlings with my secondary chaos army while Archaon pushes on til they make their way to a razed former Kraka Drak dwarven settlement along the coastline and settle there. Initially I would be the Naglfarlings ally but when they break the treaty and attack me I then conquered and subjugated them.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2068647219

As for your problem try rushing to vassalize both factions so they won't wage war on each other. If you can't get to Skaelings/Varg in time try to use your coordinate attack diplomacy with Norsca (if he's your vassel) to redirect his focus to attacking the empire or another target. If Norsca is not your vassel then declare war on him and get in a threatening position on the map near him to draw his focus on you.

If he's your vassel and on top of Skaelings/Varg last settlement try to get within reinforcing range of Norsca's attacking army so when he attacks the settlement you're in the battle with him. Don't auto resolve but instead actually play it but during the fight you can concede the fight and withdraw which automatically withdraws Norsca's army too, saving the settlement and giving you a chance to conquer/vassalize it yourself the following turn.

The loss of this battle will not count against your win/loss stats since you were a supporting army and you may have a chance to gain a trait called "Sober" which sounds great for an agent (they can get this trait too) but later develops into a campaign movement buff on its own.

[Nebiros]

I managed to get it sorted out in the end thankfully, it was easier to accomplish since i only wanted the 4 awakened tribes, as well as the Skaeling and Varg (since all the other tribes that start off on the map apart from them are made up)

I just ended up rushing straight over to the west immediately after awakening the Baersonlings, since i noticed they never do anything but raid Kislev and get their asses handed to them, instead of taking the remaining Goromadny tribe out.

Subjugated Wintertooth on my way over, and awoke the Sarl and Aesling.

Managed to get the Skaelings last settlement right before Wulfrik was rushing over to finish them off thankfully, then went about awakening the Graeling, then forcibly vassalising both Norsca and Varg by beating their leaders in battle. Vassals ended up wiping out Vanaheimlings and Naglfarlings on their own, while i helped them finish off Helspire tribe.

Before I was done there, Baersonlings got their ass handed to them by Goromadny tribe because they never tried taking the fight to them, so when I eventually headed all the way back east I had to re-awaken them lol.

At the end it probably didn't matter too much, but i just wanted to keep the unique leaders for Skaeling and Varg around, whereas the ones for the awakened tribes don't matter since they're randomized anyway.