Spiking the Guns (Civ6)/Civilopedia

Light cavalry in the 1700s and 1800s – especially the flamboyant types like hussars and lancers – were generally used for scouting, skirmishing, and raiding. In general, their use on the battlefield was limited until after the fighting, when they were unleashed to run down the fleeing enemy. But upon occasion the light cavalry was used to charge enemy artillery, usually suffering daunting casualties before nearing the guns. Whereupon the gunners would run to the nearest friendly infantry, and the horsemen would dismount to spike the guns, driving a barbed steel spike into the touch-hole and rendering the guns useless. A popular tactic for many decades; indeed, Count Friedrich von Bismarck recommended that every cavalryman should carry spikes.