Saving Throws

Some weapons and creatures punch straight through armour, applying their own modifier to the saving throw the same way shooting modifiers affect the To Hit roll. An attack of Strength 4 imposes a -1 save modifier, growing by a further -1 for every additional point of Strength.

A save can be modified all the way to impossible -- in which case it's simply failed automatically. For example, a model with a 3+ save hit by a Strength 5 attack (-2 modifier) is left with only a 5+ save to attempt.

Some models carry a Ward save -- typically from a special rule, magic item, or spell -- listed in that model's own entry in its Warhammer Armies book. Ward saves work just like armour saves and can combine with other Ward saves as normal, but are never modified by the attacking weapon's Strength. No model may ever have a Ward save better than 4+ by combining multiple sources, though a single Ward save can be better than 4+ if its own text explicitly says so.

A model with both an armour save and a Ward save takes its armour save first -- only if that fails (or is modified into impossibility) does it then take its Ward save.

Some attacks don't inflict wounds at all -- they simply remove the model as a casualty outright, often after failing a Leadership or Toughness test. In these cases no save of any kind is allowed (unless stated otherwise), and the model's remaining Wounds are irrelevant -- it's just removed from play.