To follow the minuteman questline, you have to end up with 8 settlements. Unfortunately, you have to take whatever random settlements Preston gives you, instead of the ones you would like to take in the order you would like to take them.

You can take settlements on your own, but they don't count. Preston isn't giving you the take the castle quest until you have 4 proper minutemen settlements, and isn't giving you defend the castle until you have 8, and they have to be the ones that he gave you quests to get.

Is there a way around this?