Well, I've been to a few tournaments and I've played a fair few games with my gaming group now.
Nearly all have been long board edges, and the few that are corners, are when I can choose.

Why is the corner deployment such taboo? Is it just tactically inferior? Why does it get groans from some of my opponents?

With my Space Marines I'm looking for any tiny advantage just to claw a draw, and corner deployment seems to be one of them.
The downside of corner deployment is that generally the two armies start the game farther apart. Worst case scenario instead of moving forward the 48" gap from long board edge to long board edge, your looking at corner to opposite corner 72"+

But my strategy for Marines is to have a ground force that will hide for most of the game, then contest my own objectives, and an airborne force that will hide off the table for most of the game, then smash into the enemy Blitz and other objectives.

My ground force and my objectives being further from the enemy is a bonus, as it makes it so much easier to hide as they have to double/march forward further.
The distance is also irrelevant for my airborne forces when they make the drop.

The enemy must either sit back on his objectives in Overwatch, giving my ground force freedom to grab my own objectives, or he must race forward to attack my ground force and grab my objectives, giving my airborne force an easier time when it hits their blitz.

Anyone use the corner deployment? Any ideas/comments?

Two significant points on corner deployment:-
- You can deploy further apart, favouring mobile armies and long ranged artillery
- The deployment area is 20% smaller, making it easier to predict where the enemy will deploy and so where to place drop armies.

Obviously this impacts the placement of objectives which in turn impacts the way the game plays.

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I love playing corners!  *laugh*

I think most players don't play corners mainly as an "error of omission" as most games use a "long edge" deployment so that's what people do by default.

There is certainly nothing "wrong" or "improper" with choosing a corner deployment if one has the opportunity.

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It's nice to know as I likely intend to play corners for all my Space Marine games.

It's just some of my opponents act like I shat on their kids when I choose a corner, claiming it makes for a more boring game, or that I'm making it worse for my Marines to win.

I was half expecting to have to show all my opponents at Britcon the Tournament page to show that "Yes, in fact I can choose a corner" and then already have a Sportsmanship drop for pulling some unknown on them before we even start.

I guess while I'm revealing unknowns, a chunk of my Space Marines come down in Drop Pods, I plot the landing site beforehand....but I don't have to put the Drop Pod exactly on my landing co-ordinates, it can land anywhere within 15cm of this point.
It may seem insignificant, but having a 12" diameter circle I can land anywhere in can be huge if the opponent has units blocking the actual landing point, etc.

You do "scatter" from that new point though... and a canny opponent can set up ZoC "funnels" to move you around as well.

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

Aye, but they'd have to know where your landing and wait.

It's still better than having to land at that exact point, you could theoretically land closer to the enemy than normal (for Deathwind fun), etc.

Being as my main army is IG, I rarely get to pick corners.

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Corners is fine. Indeed depending on tale size at britcon could be really effective. If its 6x4 4000 points is begging to get drop podd'ed, or at the very least shelled from space.

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I wouldn't regard choosing corners as taboo or something to frown upon at all, I think peoples reactions are based upon that they rarely play corners and find it a bit confusing, or different, from normal deployment. The groans are due to their unfamiliarity with the deployment, and therefore lack of knowledge of where to deploy and distances involved, makes it another factor for them to consider.

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Their are already a few players who regularly use corner deployment at UK tournaments so don't worry about having to explain to opponents or think it'll be thought of as bad sportsmanship.

You may find though that it's not as effective as you had hoped unless you draw a player who has little or no experience of facing drop pods.
Regular tournament players should have a few formations and ideas that can disrupt the drop zones ,1st turn drops are quite easy to negate the effectiveness of and 3rd turn drops are easier to predict where they will need to come in to be effective.