Wards are forms of protection other than armour. They take the form of amulets, talismans, crowns and such like. Wards have unique and unusual properties, but are generally protective in character and serve to ward off wounds or hits, or restore wounds that have been suffered.
Saving throws from Wards are not armour saving throws. To distingush them we refer to these as special saves in the same way as special saves from some sorts of magic armour. Damage from a weapon which disallows armour saves can still be saved by a Ward such as a hit from a cannon ball for example. Similarly, armour save modifiers do not apply to saves from Wards. See the comments in the section on Magic Armour regarding special saves.
Wards and Automatic Kills
Some spells and a few magic weapons will automatically kill their targets in certain circumstances. For example the Waaagh spell Brain Bursta can kill an enemy outright, a Hellfire sword will automatically kill a target that takes 1 wound from it, and the Skull Wand of Kaloth will drain the victim's life if he is hit and fails a Leadership test.
Targets which are killed outright in this way cannot use wards to restore or save against death. Obviously, where it is necessary to inflict 1 wound to achieve an automatic kill (as if often the case) then armour and wards can be used to save against the wound/s as normal, but no further save is possible against the automatic kill.
Enemy missile shots/hand-to-hand attacks against the bearer suffer -1 to hit modifier. Spells cast against bearer or unit he is with dispelled on 4+.
Empire only
Bearer gets 4+ special save against each wound suffered. In hand-to-hand combat any wound saved by the amulet is rebounded against the enemy that struck the blow, inflicting 1 wound for each wound saved. For each wound rebounded, roll a D6. On a 1, the power of the amulet is exhausted and may no longer be used.
Bearer gets special save of 3+ against any wound suffered. If the Crown saves 2 or more wounds in the same phase, roll a D6. On a 4+ its power is exhausted.
Re-roll failed armour save.
Gives wearer 4+ special save against each wound suffered from missile fire of S5 or less.
Gives bearer special save of 2+ that can be used once against a single wound. One use only.