If you read my post I tell you that even though you only need 6 more cities, that is the toughest part. Because this game is based on semi-historical setups, Barbarossa has just happened and Germany is thin on men in the East, Russia is gaining steam, and the US is fully into the war because Pearl Harbor just happened too. And Germany declared war on the US in the hopes that Japan would do the same for Russia, which it did not in real life, but you can do in the game.
While the battle of the Atlantic was still in the Germans favor, very soon the mass of the Royal Navy and US Navy just swallow up the U-Boats partially because Germany was using every resource it had to attack Russia, which was busy trading space for time at this point. Japan was very powerful militarily, but inferior economically to the US. Also they are spending all their time trying to take more of Asia or hold it while also trying to stop a US fleet and (in the game) trying to attack Russia from behind. It is just too much at that point in time so that is why I feel that the latest you can do for the Axis is a 1941 setup. Anything later and the tide has begun to turn in the allies favor too much for the game to be balanced. I think this setup will allow the best balance for either side to have an equal shot at victory.
The crux for the Axis is to get rid of Russia as fast as possible, so logical thinking says that you must make Barbarossa succeed (and threaten an eastern invasion with Japan at all times) in order for that to happen.