Opportunity Fire and Charge

Some troop types are dual purpose in that they have a missile capability as well as close combat e.g. some Persian and Sassanid cavalry. If reacting to enemy movement while on "opportunity" can a unit shoot AND charge, or does it have to be shoot OR charge? I've never seen a shoot AND charge played, but while reading the rules I realised that there seems to be no reason why not. Opinions?

Edit. Oops, wrong section, should've been in Rules!

I think that opportunity fire and charge are alternatives. Certainly, I've always played it that way. Rule 2.6.4 says the unit on opportunity can 'return fire, Counter-charge or Charge an enemy Unit' and I've taken the 'or' as meaning you can only do one of the list of actions. I can see that other interpretations are possible, however.

Note that, whichever interpretation is right, the same will apply to reactions in thee ZOC.

A related question is what happens if a unit on opportunity is planning to charge an enemy unit, but that enemy unit fires as the first action of its activation and scores a hit, disordering the unit on opportunity. Has the unit on opportunity lost the chance to react with a charge as a disordered unit immediately loses opportunity status? Or is the opportunity charge still possible on the basis that the reaction can occur immediately the enemy unit has activated (whilst the arrows are in flight)? I know any exchange of fire is considered simultaneous but is the charge also considered simultaneous with the fire or later (when the disordering of the unit fired upon may have taken effect).

This is related to the question about whether opportunity fire and charge are alternatives, since if you can lose the chance to charge but cannot lose the chance to fire, when fired upon, the 'choice' becomes easier.

RogerC

Thanks Roger, that was the word I had missed. You are right, shooting and charging would appear to be alternatives.

Your second point is interesting. At present I would say that the opportunity charge would be prevented, as you say, disorder knocks off the opportunity status, and shooting is resolved before the charge. However in the case of "dual function" troops, Sassanian cavalry for example, they would be able to shoot as an opportunity response, as this would be considered simultaneous. So the question is, is this a reasonable "historical" outcome?

TD