The other alliance setups which I think can work, is
axis = Germany, Italy and Russia.
axis = USA, Germany and Italy, could also work.
Other setups which could be fun trying, is uber Germany. There are several options for an uber Germany scenario.
1. Everything is normal except Italy is an allied country from the start of the game.
2. All Italian units are removed at the start of the game, so Germany must take the Italian controlled TTs, which then will belong to Germany for the rest of the game, or allies if they capture TTs which was originally owned by Italy.
3. All Italian units and TTs (at the start of the game) are converted to Germany.
Any such scenario must be played w/o NOs. If someone are interested, send pm. Any games will be TripleA live games. I must confess that with any of the above scenarios, I’m most interested in playing axis, but side switching is probably most fair if we play several games.