I went down one tooth on the front (to 16), and it was noticeable. That in addition to going up two in the rear would be pretty solid.
I think someone did the calculation somewhere on the board, and you'd ONLY be able to do around 160 or so with that gearing, but you'd have tons of low-end pull.
NE probably would have mentioned it if that gearing would require adding/subtracting links from the chain, so a stock chain will probably work.