[larsdangly]

The straight-line distance from the center of your hex to the center of the neighboring hex is only 4'. And who's to say you can't plant it at your feet near the hex edge. The only important thing is that it be longer than a non-pole weapon, which is almost always true (an exception being a great sword vs. something short like a javelin or nagimaki). Anyway, in a rules sense, all pole weapons except the mounted lance can be set, and all set pole weapons reach into the neighboring hex (or further for the pike), and get initiative on non pole weapons on a charge. So, there is not much point in arguing the case based on historical weapon lengths unless you want to undo all those core properties of pole weapons.