I think a character "takes a wound" when a wound token is placed on that character, and not when a wound is assigned to him (assign wound -> about to take a wound -> takes a wound). In other words, you can keep assigning wounds to Gimli until a wound token is placed, at which point no more wounds can be assigned to him.
I am 99% sure assigning a wound does not mean token placing. I actually know there was a discussion about
Gimli's Helm somewhere and the concept of wound assignment was in the middle of it. I can't find it now, maybe someone else has more luck... come to think of it, it may have been about
Armor.
I found this, though:
"If a character cannot take wounds, wounds cannot be assigned to that character. However, if a card prevents wounds, wounds may still be assigned to that character."
This is the situation:
Gimli bearing
Gimli's Helm and
Gimli's Armor is skirmishing a
![Raider [Raider]](https://lotrtcgdb.com/forums/Smileys/classic/raider.png)
Man who is dmg +3 (WLOG) and plays
Whirling Strike during skirmish. Now, here is what happens:
Due to
Whirling Strike, a wound is assigned to Gimli and the token for that wound is about be placed, except for
Gimli's Armor which prevents that token placing.
Both player pass their actions and the
![Raider [Raider]](https://lotrtcgdb.com/forums/Smileys/classic/raider.png)
Man wins the skirmish.
Now, if it weren't for
Gimli's Helm, 4 wounds (dmg +3) would be assigned to Gimli and then the tokens would be placed for each of those assigned wounds. However, the text of
Gimli's Helm clearly (well, not that clearly) states that only 1 wound during each skirmish phase can be assigned to him. Considering that 1 wound was already assigned to him, all the other are gone with the wind.
It doesn't matter if that wound was prevented. Wounds can only be prevented if they were previously assigned. And if 1 wound was assigned, then no more can be assigned to Gimli bearing
Gimli's Helm. Q.E.D.