If a creature is wounded by a hit, it still has a chance of avoiding damage by making a save roll on a D6. There are two types of saves: armour saves and Ward saves. These are explained below.

Models that are wounded still have a chance to avoid damage if they are wearing armour or carrying shields, or if they are riding a horse or similar creature. These models have an armour saving roll.

Roll a D6 for each wound suffered by your troops. If you roll greater than or equal to the model's armour save, the wound has been deflected by its armour.

For example: A warrior carrying a shield and wearing light armour has an armour save of 5+, so be must roll a 5 or 6 to be saved by his armour.

Cavalry models automatically have an armour save of 4 even if the rider is wearing no armour. This represents the extra protection afforded by the mount. If the rider is armoured then his armour save will be +1 better than it would be if he were on foot.

For example, a Man wearing light armour and carrying a shield has an armour save of 5+ on foot and 4+ when mounted.

Note that this bonus only applies to cavalry and not to characters or other models riding monsters. Rules for monsters and riders are discussed in the section on Monsters.

To continue our example from above, the Goblin archers have scored 1 wound on the Elf troops. Since the Elves are wearing light armour and have shields their armour saving throw is 5+. The Elf player rolls a 2. Not surprisingly he has failed. if he had scored a 5 or 6, the arrow would have bounced off and the Elf would have been unharmed.

Some weapons or creatures are so powerful that they can punch right through armour, so armour provides less protection against them. Such attacks confer modifiers that are subtracted from the foe's armour saving throw. This is shown by the table below.

For example: A crossbow (S4) hits a warrior wearing light armour and shield. Normally he would need to roll 5 or 6 to make his save and avoid taking the wound but, because of the crossbow's enormous hitting power, -1 is subtracted from his dice roll. Therefore, he must now roll a 6 to save.

Observant readers will have noticed that the best save on the Armour saves chart is a 2+ on a D6 but it is possible to get a better save. Magic armour is one way to improve the wearer's armour save to 1+ or even less! However a roll of 1 will always fail, so even a model with a 1+ or better armour save will suffer a wound if it rolls 1 when taking its armour save.

The advantage of a 1+ save is that it offers better protection against weapons with save modifiers. For example, a model with a 2+ save hit by a S4 attack saves on a 3+, while a model with a 1+ save will save on a 2+.

Some troops types and creatures are protected by more than mere physical armour. They may be shielded by magical charms or blessings, given protection by the gods of the Warhammer world, or perhaps they are just astoundingly lucky.

Models with this sort of protection are referred to as having a Ward save or Ward. This type of save is quite different from an armour save and it is very important to understand the difference from the beginning.

Wards represent magical or divine protection which can save a warrior when armour would be of no use at all. Unlike an armour save, a Ward is never modified by Strength modifiers, etc. Even if a hit ignores all armour saves, a model with a Ward may still try to make its Ward save as normal. A model may only ever make one Ward save against each wound it has suffered.

Sometimes a model has both an armour save and a Ward save. In this case, the model must take the armour save first and, if it is failed, the model is allowed to try to make a Ward save. No model can ever try to make more than one Ward save against a wound it has suffered. If a model has two Ward saves for any reason, use the better Ward save.