Can post more on thoughts if anyone is interested, but yet to play a game of it.

I'd be interested in an overview of turn structure and basic resolution mechanics, at least.

I've never been at all interested in historical minis so I'm not really familiar with Bolt Action. I find it odd that the rules are related. From what I understand, Rick tried to get the game started himself, was unable to, and only then went to warlord. Is that not correct, or were the original Antares rules rewritten?

The turn structure is very simple. The foundation of the game (as Bolt Action) is a six sided order dice. Each team/unit/vehicle you have on the board has an order dice.

All of yours and your opponents order dice go in a bag.

A blind draw occurs and whoever's dice is drawn can activate a unit of their choice.

You don't roll the order dice at all, you select a side: advance, run, fire, rally, ambush[overwtach], and down[take cover]

This sequence continues until all the order dice have been drawn/all units are activated.

I mostly like this mechanic (beats the hell out of IGOUGO), the only peril is in beardy play with a list spamming lots of small units. Albeit this is somewhat mitigated by those units being more susceptible to being pinned/broken.

The dice mechanics of shooting/hitting/killing and melee aren't all that radically different from 40K. A key feature is the use of 'pin' markers which are an indication of how much suppressing fire a unit has suffered (and in Antares also if they are exhausted through special activations, like sprinting). All too few wargames reflect the impact of nearly getting hit. A unit in 40K can come under a withering hail of fire, pass all the armour and wound tests and then carry on as if nothing had ever happened, this attempts to rectify that issue. Pins reduce the likelihood of a unit passing an order test and reduces their firepower (some are cowering and not shooting back!)

On the orders dimension, Antares adds an additional layer of complexity with the opportunity for units to 'react' to enemy actions. In Bolt Action this mechanic was limited to either a unit with an Ambush order or a unit opting to go Down to improve their chances of surviving a shooting attack. In Antares there are a plethora of options (including running away from a charging unit or engaging a unit in a fire-fight); however, a unit has to pass a Initiative test in order to take the reaction. Of note is this uses a different attribute than that for order tests, which is a good design feature. So you can have units/races that are very good at following orders, but have poor initiative.

One of the criticisms of Bolt Action is all of the weapons were a bit too same-y. I think Antares does a better job with creating variety, given the D10 mechanic and also the role of personal body armour (e.g. some weapons having weaker damage, but good penetration, etc.)

I'm enthused about trying to apply it to 40K, I just need some time to sit down and work out the conversion of attributes, weapon stats and special abilities. I'll probably start with two of my armies and basic lists first and take it from there. Time is the big issue though (**** work!)

Hope that helps!