diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index f8a8748..82e1894 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -35,6 +35,12 @@ Build:
   stage: build
   when: manual
   allow_failure: false
+  # checkout our submodules
+  variables:
+    GIT_SUBMODULE_STRATEGY: recursive
+  before_script:
+    - git submodule sync
+    - git submodule update --init --recursive
   parallel:
     matrix:
       - DISTRO:
@@ -53,12 +59,6 @@ Build:
     - autoscale
   except:
     - merge_requests
-  # checkout our submodules
-  variables:
-    GIT_SUBMODULE_STRATEGY: recursive
-  before_script:
-    - git submodule sync
-    - git submodule update --init --recursive
   script:
     - make $DISTRO
     - echo VERSION=$(cat version) >> variables.env