So.. The typical build I see for a cowboy is Cold one, Armor of Destiny, GW, Dawnstone, item of your choice... That would come to 7 total points of armor and a 4+ ward. My question is, if you can only have a 2+ armor save (5 points of armor) what is the point of taking the Armor of Destiny. My original thinking was that you could still maintain a 2+ armor save vs. strength 5, but I was recently told that no longer works. So why the AoD instead of a 4+ talisman?
You can have up to a 1+ armor save. The AoD on a scarvet on cold one gives a 1+ and on an oldblood a "0+" which would still be a 1+. The armor and ward are actually less points than splitting the two items. The 4+ talisman is only 5 points less and it also take up the slot for Dawnstone which give re-rols for failed armor saves.
You can have a 1+ save, but a 1 always fails. However, if you get a -1 penalty to your save (Str 4 or Ap or wahtever) that 1+ turns into a 2+ which still fails on a roll of a 1. So with a 1+ armor save, it takes 2 points of penalty to make your save worse!
Ahhh ok, so there is just one extra armor point "lost" (because you exceed 1+ by 1). Good point about the talisman and dawnstone being of the same list of items. Good to know we are not completely invincible.