Fantasy Trip Pole Weapons and Charges

[Skarg]

(ANSWER CROSS-POSTED TO CROSS-POSTED QUESTION.)

Almost. And, we don't yet know for certain the new unpublished rules, but AFAIK:

To get the +2DX, you have to not even move 1 hex. However you can turn around against someone who ran around to your rear (so I was wrong yesterday in suggesting that was a tactic the non-pole-user should use). (see AM pg.12)

If you force someone to retreat and have MA 10, you can probably back up two and run forward 3 to charge them next turn.

However if you knock them down in the hex next to you, you would need MA 12 to charge them next turn, because you'd have to go back 3 and forward 3, total 6. You could take a turn to move back to get more distance to charge later, but you'd be letting them get up instead of getting to hit them while they're getting up (which hopefully gives you a +4 to hit them, but we don't know exactly how Steve will write the new rules - in old basic Melee you would not get the +4, but in old Advanced Melee you would.

Taking the Defend option is a trade-off of risks, so there's no hard rule without crunching numbers for all results in the specific case. The rule the other simulator used was always taking Defend when faced with a pole weapon charge. As I recall, the result was a slight increase in chance of victory.