>>So, does anyone see any benefits from charging from pole range while advancing?
It's preferable, almost necessary, to allow melee weapon users to not get infinitely kited via RETREAT. If someone is using a bow I can advance, wait to get to pole, then punch/claw/lunge/whatever and get a single hit in before they have a good chance to RETREAT and be back at missile again. It prevents being stuck advancing forever. Pole ranged weapons (and ranged, and CC) address this, but not as simply or broadly.
I also believe it has a to-hit bonus, but that's anecdotal off a very small data set and hazy memories. I certainly can't confirm it and could easily be wrong.
That said, I wouldn't be opposed to changing the mechanics in which it applies - requiring CHARGE instead of any old attack, for example. Or disabling it for pole-ranged weapons, and simply having you swing in place rather than charge (without having to type RETREAT before your swing to stop your advance, and perhaps without having to stop your advance at all, depending on implementation.)
