Thanks for the update, here's a somewhat detailed experience of my NR campaign.
Opened the game by spreading out my starting units to the border worlds, building ion cannons and golans on those worlds, and building mines everywhere (3x mine limit per planet was a great change imo). None of these planets have been attacked except Mon Cal and New Alderaan, which I had written off anyway.
I pretty much immediately lost the entire Hapen Fleet as well as the entire cluster except Charubah. Take note NR players, they will need help and fast. I had a level two station and an Ion cannon when I lost Hapes as well so don't think that will be enough.
Zsinj was killed off by the Maldrood on week 15, my only encounter with him was when he stole one of my transitory mists. I immediately took back Carida and Tsoss Beacon but didn't commit to take Kuat because I didn't want to leave my border worlds undefended (this was a mistake). I advise killing the empire immediately because those jerks built an executor while I was prepping a fleet to take it.
Week 25 now and my borders are secure and I'm ready to start pushing on. The Maldrood and Zsinj have been slugging it out ever since day one.
Best change is the fix to the enemy fleet trickle that plagued the last version of the mod. Every enemy fleet that's attacked me has been sufficient to win, even against my decently defended Hapes.
-EDIT: Played a bit as Maldrood and the NR attacked me a few times with just 3 capital ships against a level 1 station with a level 1 Golan. They probably would have won but I had a hypervelocity gun. Ai seems unable to take into account ground based space defenses when assessing attack risk. Not sure if this can be changed.
How many fighters do those unique Maldrood ships have? I can't remember the name of the ship right now but it's the bigger than normal looking Star Destroyer smaller than a Praetor, that spawns v-9 torrents amongst other things iirc. When I lost Hapes I had a lone Corvette doing donuts around the map while my surviving Hapen fighters were scoring kills and those ships never ever ran out of fighters.
I have to say that the ai is still hopelessly inept at ground combat, especially the single unit infantry change. They just trickle in stormies to get mowed down. It's not all bad though, artillery, at-te, and aircraft are still threatening, but Juggernaughts seem really weak.
EDIT: After playing some Maldrood, I really like the Arquitens. Cheap, spammable, and they pack a decent punch. I like them better than Carracks because of the laser cannons they have, and they are definitely better than Marauders (what isn't though). IPV's might be too strong though, infinite power to weapons is ridiculous, especially if you exploit by hiding them underneath level 3 golans where they can't get hit.
EDIT: For those who said Hypervelocity guns are useless I disagree. Ion cannons are better of course but the H-Gun is still great at crippling enemy frigates and weakening capitals and if you get lucky can even knock out shields. Building two of them on the planet makes it recharge really fast too. Since the ai moves through space like a bloated whale you get tons of time to fire. I found H-Guns vital to surviving the early game as Maldrood.
EDIT: Raptor fighters seem really strong (which is intentional I assume). But for everyone's amusement, 1 raptor squadron can solo two tie fighter and two v-9 torrent squads handily. Or maybe it's just that basic ties and torrents are bad?
EDIT: Maldrood barracks spawn two Pentastar Enforcers on the ground and that's it. Seems weak, and presumably unintentional.
EDIT: NR grenadiers being able to throw bombs on stormies is pretty ridiculous and nearly impossible to counter unless I happen to see which guy the bomb landed on. Kind of tired to losing entire squads of stormies to random bombs. It doesn't help that the grenadier unit themselves don't have a unique model compared to normal infantry.
Bug Notes:
-Quasars are FREE! Probably the most gamebreaking I've noticed. Quasars do not cost any population in space battles. I have a fleet of 3mc80 Home one type and Ackbar (16), two nebulons (4), One of Drednought, Assault, Dauntless, Marauder, Mc40 (11), 8 Corvettes (8) for a fleet comp of 39/40. But then I also have 12 quasars in this fleet as well and they are on the map with the rest. I have a ludicrous fighter comp of 33X, 29Y, 4A, and 5B wings. If I hover over the Quasars it says 3 pop, on the galactic map they say 1 pop. I'm assuming they are supposed to cost 3 pop because even at 1 pop they would be way too "efficient." Also, as a quality of life change, can we have Quasars spawn in space when they are built instead of on the ground?
-NR infantry lieutenants and captains do not have any weapons. I don't know if this is intentional or not, the description says they should have a blaster pistol, but they cannot shoot at all. Also, none of the NR infantry units can shoot while inside of a bunker except for Plex units.
EDIT: It appears that none of the regular infantry units can shoot from bunkers, but indigenous units (Wookies and Mon Cals confirmed) can do so.