Right, I know half the posters on here will rush in to defend the wards but I'll be ignoring you. There's a problem with the way the wards function. They're too small.
A ward can only hold X amount of retainers. If it's full and you try to put your retainer there the system won't allow you. Since retainers are no longer reset when the game is patched or due to random crashes you're effectively locked out of that ward until someone removes their retainer and you get lucky to be the next guy in there.
Due to the way the tax system works this is unacceptable. I don't wish to sell my weapons in the wrong ward and lose 3% of the sale price due to higher tax. In a real economy this would be passed on to the consumer but this is not viable in a game.
When the battle ward is full, battle ward #2 should open up. It's an easy fix.