Faction Focus: Aeldari – Aspect Host Detachment *Updated 16 December 2025*

This post was updated on December 16, 2025 to account for changes in the Q4 Balance Dataslate.

Aeldari have had a strong presence in Warhammer 40K for many years. With fast, hard-hitting power and enough movement tricks to drive all those filthy Mon-keigh opponents crazy, Aeldari have leveraged themselves as one of the top factions in competitive Warhammer 40K over 10th edition. Although they are considered a “high-skill ceiling” army, once mastered, they are a deadly force on the table top capable of taking down just about any foe. In this article I’m going to be focusing on one of the best builds the codex has to offer; the Aspect Host Detachment. I’m going to cover the detachment rules, enhancements and stratagems and review the best units and tactics to get the most out of this incredible army. Let’s get into it.

It should be noted that Aeldari are not an easy army to play. Sure, they’ve had a history of being one of the easier and more deadly armies to pilot over the years. At the start of 10th edition, they plagued tables everywhere with the dreaded Wraithknight devastating wounds list that was, quite frankly an abomination. From there, Aeldari players shifted into what was originally a broken Ynnari build that quickly saw the nerf-hammer. All of which has led us to the current, and very likely final form, of this tricksy faction in the Aspect Host. Update 12/16/25: And here we find the Aeldari taking yet another nerf with points increases on the units played the most in this detachment to include Phoenix Lords and most of the Aspect Warriors.

If you’re a fan of the awesome Aspect Warriors like Fire Dragons, Warp Spiders, Swooping Hawks and Dark Reapers, and the amazing Phoenix Lords then Aspect Host is the detachment for you. The elite warriors of the Aeldari mythos absolutely smash in this detachment.

Aeldari Army Rule: Battle Focus

Aeldari have one of the best army rules in the game in the form of Battle Focus. At the start of the Battle Round you get a number of Battle Focus Tokens depending on the size of the battle you’re playing. For the standard Strike Force battle, you’ll start with 4 tokens each Battle Round. These tokens can be used for awesome buffs to your units called Agile Manoeuvres. The great thing about Battle Focus is that it is a free resource you get to use every turn. For most armies, the abilities of Battle Focus would be worthy of valuable Command Points but instead, you just get to use them. While you still have to manage your Battle Focus Tokens like Command Points, they are effectively the equivalent to free stratagems. With the exception of Swift as the Wind, each Agile Manoeuvre can only be used once per phase and a unit can only ever use one Battle Focus ability per phase.

• Swift as the Wind: Triggers when an eligible unit from your army is selected to make a Normal, Advance or Fall Back move. Add 2″ to the Move characteristic of models in that unit
• Flitting Shadows: Triggers when an eligible unit from your army is selected to make a Normal, Advance or Fall Back move or is setup on the battlefield. Until the end of the turn, enemy units cannot use the Fire Overwatch Stratagem to shoot at that unit.
• Star Engines: Triggers when an eligible Vehicle unit from your army is selected to make a Normal move. Until the end of the phase, add D6+1″ to the Move characteristic of models in that unit. Update 12/16/2025: This changed in the Q4 Balance Dataslate. Now the ability triggers when you make an Advance roll with an Aeldari Vehicle unit. That Vehicle’s ranged weapons gain the Assault ability until the end of the turn.
• Sudden Strike: Triggers when an eligible unit from your army is selected to fight. Until the end of the phase, each time a model in that unit makes a Pile-in or Consolidation move, it can move up to 6″ instead of up to 3″
• Opportunity Seized: Triggers when an enemy unit ends a Fall Back move. One eligible unit from your army (excluding Titanic units) that started the phase within Engagement Range of that enemy unit can make a Normal move of up to D6+1″
• Fade Back: Triggers in your opponent’s Shooting phase just after an enemy unit has shot. One eligible unit from your army (excluding Titanic units) that was hit by one or more of those attacks can make a Normal move of up to D6+1″

There are some awesome abilities here as you can see. Just being able to get extra movement or turn off Overwatch as well as getting free “reactive moves” in your opponent’s turn are powerful abilities that present incredibly frustrating moments for your opponent. If there is one word that can sum up this army rule it would be “annoying.” Aeldari are paper thin however with most of their infantry being Toughness 3 models with poor armor saves, and these Agile Manoeuvre abilities help keep them alive a bit longer, often to the hair-pulling frustration of your opponent.

Aspect Host: Detachment Rule

As far as detachment rules go, Aspect Host has one of the best in the game.

Path of the Warrior: Each time an Aspect Warriors of Avatar of Khaine unit from your army is selected to shoot or fight, select one of the following abilities for it to gain until the end of the phase:

• Each time a model in this unit makes an attack, re-roll a Hit roll of 1
• Each time a model in this unit makes an attack, re-roll a Wound roll of 1

Aeldari have some absolutely deadly weapon profiles for both their shooting and melee units, and unlike many other factions out there (looking at you filthy Astartes Mon-keighs) they have a very limited amount of re-rolls available to the army. Aspect Host answers that issue offering essentially army-wide re-rolls of 1 to either Hit or Wound rolls. While it applies only to Aspect Warriors or the Avatar, your army is going to be 90% composed of these units to make the most of the detachment rule.

It’s important to note that all Aspect Warriors units have these little tokens they can use once per battle called Aspect Shrine Tokens. These tokens can be used to flip a hit or wound roll to a 6 and can be used after all re-rolls have been applied. Update 12/16/2025: In the new Q4 Balance Dataslate, this rule was updated to prohibit attached Leader units from using their units Aspect Shrine token to change a hit or wound roll to a 6. Meaning you cannot use an Aspect Shrine token to flip a wound roll to a 6 with Asurmen’s ranged attacks when he decides to use his once per battle ability to make his ranged weapon damage 3 with Devastating Wounds, etc.

Combining these Aspect Shrine Tokens with the Aspect Host detachment rule means you can fish for hits or wounds by re-rolling 1s and then applying the token to a failed roll. Additionally, the Aspect Host makes use of using these Aspect Shrine tokens to buff your stratagems making them even more potent (and they’re already pretty darn potent…we’ll get into that in a bit). As far as detachment rules go, Aspect Host stands as one of the best in the game. It’s always useful.

Aspect Host: Enhancements

If there is a drawback to this detachment, it comes in the form of the Enhancements. They’re certainly not terrible, but they come at a steep points cost. Most Aeldari Aspect Host detachment builds focus primarily on Phoenix Lords (who also happen to have the Aspect Warriors keyword) as their Character units, so there is little room to add them in your army anyway.

• Aspect of Murder – 25 Points: Autarch or Autarch Wayleaper model only. Add 1 to the Damage characteristic of melee weapons equipped by the bearer and those weapons have the Precision ability. Useful on an Autarch attached to Striking Scorpions or Howling Banshees pushing his Star Glaive to Damage 4 with Precision.
• Mantle of Wisdom – 30 Points: Autarch or Autarch Wayleaper model only. While the bearer is leading an Aspect Warriors unit, each time that unit is selected to shoot or fight, until the end of the phase, models in that unit gain both of the abilities from the Path of the Warrior Detachment rule. Handy to put on an Autarch with a large squad of Dark Reapers to maximize their damage output re-rolling 1s to hit AND wound. That said, in most cases you’re probably taking 5 man units of these anyway, making this Enhancement pretty steep in cost to benefit only 5 models.
• Shimmerstone – 15 Points: Autarch or Autarch Wayleaper model only. While the bearer is leading an Aspect Warriors unit, each time a ranged attack targets that unit, subtract 1 from the Wound roll. Again useful on an Autarch leading a squad of Dark Reapers or even some of the melee oriented Aspects like Striking Scorpions or Howling Banshees. If you’re taking an Autarch in your list and have points leftover, it’s a nice one to take.
• Strategic Savant – 15 Points: Autarch or Autarch Wayleaper model only. While the bearer is leading an Aspect Warriors unit, add 1 to the Objective Control characteristic of models in that unit. Situationally this one is good, but since Aeldari models basically fall over when standing in the open on an objective, and you’d want to use this to try and contest one of your opponent’s objectives, this one is less useful than the others. If you have the points leftover you’re probably taking Shimmerstone over this one.

Again, these Enhancements aren’t terrible, but in general you’re going to be attaching Phoenix Lords to your Aspect Warrior units because they provide them insane buffs. This leaves very little room for characters like Autarchs in the army. Especially when you could just take those points and get another Aspect Warrior unit instead. Aspect of Murder and Mantle of Wisdom could be useful Enhancements if their price point was lower, but as it stands now they’re not worth throwing on an Autarch in most cases when you could just take the Phoenix Lord instead (which is a testament to how strong the Phoenix Lords actually are in this codex rather than an indictment on these Enhancements being bad).

Aspect Host: Stratagems

This detachment has a ton of great stratagems. While it lacks a Fall Back and shoot/charge stratagem like Warhost, it still offers a suite of flexible strats that really ramp your Aspect Warrior units up to 11. Remember how we talked about those Aspect Shrine Tokens earlier? In Aspect Host they can be used for more than simply changing a hit/wound roll to a 6. Many of the stratagems in the Aspect Host detachment let you sacrifice your token to get an even better benefit adding another layer of flexibility to an already strong ability.

• Warrior Focus – 1 CP – Your Shooting phase or Fight Phase. Select one Aspect Warriors or Avatar of Khaine unit from your army that has not been selected to shoot or fight this phase. Until the end of the phase, each time a model in your unit makes an attack, you can ignore any or all modifiers to that attack’s Ballistic Skill, Weapon Skill, Strength, Armour Penetration and Damage characteristics and/or any or all modifiers to the Hit roll. Tired of those Mon-keighs and their stupid Armor of Contempt? Want to slice through a C’tan shard like a hot knife through butter? Warrior Focus is one of the best stratagems the army has access to. It is one of the few abilities in the game that just flat out ignores modifiers to Damage characteristics making it incredibly deadly on a unit of Fire Dragons or even Howling Banshees. This is a key stratagem you’ll probably use commonly in this army when it counts.
• To Their Final Breath – 1 CP – Fight phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets. One Aspect Warriors or Avatar of Khaine unit from your army that was selected as the target of one or more of the attacking unit’s attacks. Fight on death on a 4+ AND if you sacrifice an Aspect Token when you use this strat you can add 1 to the roll. Fight on death is a powerful ability in the game and having it here on units like Howling Banshees with Jain Zar, a unit that already has Fights First, can make them a deadly threat the opponent has to carefully consider. Not to mention that most of the Phoenix Lords hit pretty decently in combat anyway, this strat has a lot of flexibility and depending on the opponent could be a strat you lean on heavily in melee oriented matchups.
• Skyborne Sanctuary – 1 CP – Update 12/16/2025: This stratagem was changed as part of the Q4 Balance Dataslate update. End of the Fight Phase. One Asuryani unit from your army that was eligible to fight this phase and one friendly Transport it is able to embark within. If your Asuryani unit is not within Engagement Range of one or more enemy units and is wholly within 6″ of that Transport, it can embark within it. A key strat in the Aspect Host detachment. You can use that Star Engines battle focus ability on a Wave Serpent loaded down with Fire Dragons to get extra movement, hop the squad out after it moves an insane distance (which still counts as a normal move), pop the Flitting Shadows Battle Focus ability on the squad as they hop out to prevent the Overwatch, blast away and slaughter your opponent’s units and then at the end of the Fight phase, hop back into the Wave Serpent. Update 12/16/2025: This stratagem changed on the Q4 Balance Dataslate. Now the stratagem requires the target unit to have been eligible to Fight in the fight phase. This in combination with the change to the Star Engines Battle Focus ability noted above, effectively nerfed this trick entirely. Probably for the best. You can still reembark, but your unit had to have been eligible to fight and no longer be in engagement range. There is some play here with using this on a squad of Howling Banshees, however because of the restrictions on how pile/in and consolidation moves work, doing so AND remaining wholly within 6” of their transport at the end of the Fight phase is a difficult trick to pull off effectively killing this stratagem entirely. Remember how I said Aeldari was annoying? This is one of the most annoying abilities the army has access to. It is important to keep in mind the trigger timing though. It happens at the end of the Fight phase. Meaning if, somehow your opponent can Pile-in or worse, surge move, into the Fire Dragons after you’ve shot, they can prevent you from getting back inside which can flip a game quickly on you. So you’ll want to keep this in mind when using the stratagem and plan for it carefully in your Movement phase when the unit hops out.
• Doom Inescapable – 1 CP – Your Shooting phase. One Avatar of Khaine model from your army that has not been selected to shoot this phase. Until the end of the phase, increase the range of his Wailing Doom ranged weapon to 18″ and it has a Damage characteristic of 8. This can be a handy little tool to have if you’re running the Avatar of Khaine especially if you get lucky enough to roll a 6 to hit to get his Sustained Hits ability on the attack. That being said, from a sheer efficiency standpoint, you’re probably not running the Avatar of Khaine in an Aspect Host list simply because of the points cost and the fact that, despite having a 2+/4+ invulnerable save and halving damage, he’s still highly susceptible to things like mortal wounds (since he has no Feel No Pain or access to it) and cannot Fall Back and charge. If you do opt to bring him in your Aspect Host detachment then sometimes this can be a useful strat especially considering he can re-roll 1s to hit or wound with the detachment rule making his attack pretty reliable when you use this strat.
• Preternatural Precision – 1CP – Your Shooting phase. One Aspect Warriors unit from your army that has not been selected to shoot this phase. The unit gets one of three abilities: Sustained Hits 1, Lethal Hits or Ignores Cover until the end of the phase. If you sacrifice an Aspect Shrine Token, you can select two of the three abilities instead. This is one of my favorite strats in the detachment as it can really ramp up the power of Fire Dragons when they hop out of a Wave Serpent. A 10 man unit of Fire Dragons with Fuegan attached can really spread out some nasty damage with popping a token to get Sustained Hits 1 and Lethals when you need them. This combos nicely too with Lhykhis and her squad, that can make critical hits happen on a 5+ for the rest of the army against something she shot at. This probably isn’t a strat you’re using every turn, but when you can make it count it can be crippling to the opponent.
• Khaine’s Vengeance – 1 CP – Your opponent’s Movement phase just after an enemy unit (excluding Monster and Vehicles) is selected to Fall Back. One Aspect Warriors or Avatar of Khaine unit from your army that is within Engagement Range of that enemy unit. All models in that enemy unit must take a Desperate Escape test. Subtract 1 from each of those tests if the unit is also Battle-shocked. A great strat to use when you pressure with Howling Banshees or Striking Scorpions early but don’t quite kill the unit. Having to take a Desperate Escape to Fall Back makes the opponent really have to make some difficult decisions. Especially if the unit is Battle-shocked as they have a 50% chance of just losing each model. This strat is situational but when it comes up can be really big.

Running an Aeldari Aspect Host Army

Updated 12/16/2025: The Q4 Balance Dataslate update made some significant changes to this detachment changing the rules for the Star Engines Battle Focus ability, completely changing the Skyborne Sanctuary stratagem, and preventing attached leader units from using their bodyguard units’ Aspect Shrine tokens to flip a hit/wound roll to a 6. This army is still probably the best all-around detachment that Aeldari have access to still yet despite these changes.

As you can see, you’re really going to want to lean heavily into Aspect Warrior units and Phoenix Lords with an Aspect Host build. You can make a case for the Avatar of Khaine here as well since he also gets to benefit from being able to use the detachment rule to re-roll hit or wound rolls of 1, but without access to Fall Back and charge, and no real defensive buffs for him here, he’s honestly better suited to be run in a Warhost build oddly enough where you can give him -1 to hit and also be able to Fall Back and shoot and charge. In Aspect Host he can get bogged down with big blobs of infantry units and of course it’s easy enough to work around Damage reduction in many armies with access to mortal wound abilities like Grenades, Tank Shock and Devastating Wounds.

Instead you’re going to want to focus on the best Aspect Warriors leveraging the army’s speed and hard hitting power to setup screens, control the board and let your Fire Dragons, Dark Reapers and Howling Banshees with their respective Phoenix Lords do most of the work here. Let’s look at an example list.

Staging Jain Zar and a small squad of Howling Banshees behind a ruin wall in range to Heroic Intervention with Fights First is a great way to keep pressure off your gunlines. Swooping Hawks being able to move 16″+ an Advance (with Swift as the Wind) and then drop mortal wounds and still shoot makes them a great threat as well. Don’t be afraid to use them early to provide screens to your important units. Of course Warp Spiders have a ridiculous 24″ move (26″ with Swift as the Wind) and with Lhykhis attached can still make this movement, shoot, and charge after. And of course Fuegan and Fire Dragons out of a Wave Serpent are a scary enough threat to really hold the opponent back from committing their best units too early in the game. Update 12/16/2025: Fire Dragons are still an incredible unit, but you’re probably no longer putting 10 with Fuegan in a Wave Serpent with the change to Skyborne Sanctuary. That said, their weapons still have Assault, they can still benefit from the No Overwatch Agile Manoeuvre, and can still get the extended 6” range on their melta weapons by having Fuegan leading them allowing them to get into melta range much easier. You’re probably better off running 2 units of 5 now as opposed to one big brick of 10.

Meanwhile you can pop out Dark Reapers and Maugan Ra from a Falcon to proc those sweet wound re-rolls on the unit to maximize Maugan’s Devastating Wounds capability from long range.

You have to play with a good amount of balance between aggressive pressure and holding back until the timing is right. This army is also CP intensive as you’re basically going to want Skyborne Sanctuary available when you need it and you’re going to be using things like Warrior Focus and To Their Final Breath as well as Preternatural Precision.

This army tends to struggle a bit in general holding Primary while being able to excel in the Secondary game especially being able to score positional Secondaries essentially at will. You don’t want to overextend the more important pieces early and you’ll want to defend your natural expansion objectives with things like Rangers, Storm Guardians (for the sticky ability) and Corsair Voidreavers while putting some early pressure on with Striking Scorpions, Warp Spiders and Swooping Hawks.

Movement is critical to be successful with Aspect Host. Using your movement to leverage devastating strikes while being able to prevent being shot back is vital. This army can struggle a bit into some pressure melee builds especially ones like Blood Angels who can just hop your screens with Jump Pack units with Fly. If you are able to master the tempo and the Movement abilities of Aspect Host however you will have a lot of success with this army.

Update 12/16/2025: This army lost a lot in the Q4 Balance Dataslate, but it still has a great detachment rule and a great suite of Strats to use (despite effectively losing Skyborne Sanctuary and the change to the Star Engines ability from Battle Focus). Overall, it still provides great synergy with your Aspect Warrior units and the Phoenix Lords. It’s not nearly as powerful as before to be sure, but can still be a very competitive build on the tabletop.

Final Thoughts

Aspect Host has quickly risen to the top as the most effective Aeldari detachment. With a great detachment rule allowing you to maximize damage output with re-rolls to hit or wound, combined with great strat support and the ever important Battle Focus abilities, the Aspect Host detachment is the best way to get the most bang out of your Aspect Warriors and Phoenix Lords. This army can be a bit of a glass cannon however, so it is crucial to position and stage units properly to get the most out of them. This army has the potential to be great into most matchups with careful movement and positioning. If you’re a fan of Aspect Warriors and the awesome Phoenix Lords then the Aspect Host detachment is going to be right up your alley.

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