When it comes to melee weapons in BattleTech some people love them, others hate them. Even among those who love them its pretty much swords, hatchets and an occasional mace. Some people go for the claws and talons. Then you got some strange ones like the retractable blade and the vibroblades. And then there are the rest of the physical weapons, often referred to as piles of junk.

The lance I've felt is a junk weapon, low damage and a small chance to cause a tac. I was playing some megamek with a bunch of physical weapon mechs and I took some with lances to see how they would do. Now I see they seem to be on smaller fast mechs. Often I think I could do more damage with a charge attack then firing weapons and trying to stab another mech with a lance.

Now I have always felt mechs with melee weapons should get some extra bonuses on a charge attack since they spent some of their valuable mass on being better at point blank range. But I can also see that swinging a sword or a mace while running full speed into another mech might be hard to pull off. The lance however seems like it should be in a unique position to benefit a charge attack. Its basically designed to hold out while running full speed into a target in a way that a hatchet wouldnt. But as far as I know there isn't any rule that lets the lance give a charge attack any benefit. I know spikes put on a mech effect charge attacks, and a lance is basically just a large spike. Seems like it should give something.

I was wondering if there was an book out there I missed or forgot that gave anything to a lance a bonus to a charge attack, or if anyone had any house rules for it.

If the lance should also apply bonuses on a DFA attack is an exercise left to the reader, but if anyone wants to muse out loud here I wouldn't mind hearing the thoughts.