Karl, it sounds like you have it right.
J10 to J11, or I12 to I13, yes, that’s right.
One thing to clarify is that in the case that the Allies get a city, it is completely reset. The Axis have to get to the requisite number of cities again, and once they do, they have to hold that many cities or more for a complete round (I14 to I15 for example)
Like when a boxer gets up before the 10 count, the referee has to start counting from “1” again the next time the boxer is down.
And yes, TripleA is totally worthless on this point, from what I’ve heard