They are appearing on the vassal summary as workers . I have to go to the vassal, take control and assign them to the defense plots. In some of these cases , there isn't an assignment choice when I hover over them, it just says raider recruit with the interaction keyboard choice. I can assign them if I control the vassal but I don't have the option to change their troop type.
Sorry, what I meant was: When you do get to the vassal are these "worker" recruits assigned to or actually working other plots, like Farms or Industrials? or are they completely unassigned?
I'm wondering if auto-assign + auto role change is assigning them to open work plots and re-roling them to workers. (It might be, but maybe they are unassigning from those plots just like they unassign from guard posts.)
TBH I also wonder if just turning off auto role change in the Conqueror menu will solve this problem.
The guards still will unassign from their posts whenever you arrive at the Vassal,
but at least they should remain guards. So control will remain constant, even if defense fluctuates between reassigning them to their posts.
I don't know if auto-assign off will fix the problem with your current guards turned workers, but doing so
should make sure any future recruits you send to vassals as guards stay guards.
Also, if you are checking the Vassal settlement report at an Outpost, one thing I've noticed is that things like control percentage and W/R/E production don't seem to
fully update until you actually have visited the vassal. I wish we could actually check the report at a vassal! But there's definitely some sort of lag in updating the report ( at least there is in my game).
So whenever I assign a patrol to a vassal and then check the report, the control percentage will go up some but it won't immediately register the full amount it should have gone up. It seems to immediately report the base control, but not the bonus control that patrols get from warriors. This eventually sorts itself out after a visit to the vassal.
Likewise, if a plot in a vassal has auto upgraded and I then check the report at an Outpost, only the base production seems to be reported. I have to make an actual visit to the vassal in order to get the report to show the full production (bonus production from vasasls/morale bonus).
Whether this will sort itself out on its own given enough time, I can't say. I'm too impatient and actually visiting the Vassal seems to force the update.