were of five general categories: • Regular
special forces from the
Danish army sent to work behind enemy lines to disrupt communications and
supply lines, obtain
intelligence, prevent
Swedish tax collection, catch
traitors, and help
Danes escape from enemy territory. Captain Pieter Sten, who the
Swedes considered the fiercest of , spent part of his time in the regular army and ran a spy central at the Ringsøe lake (now
Ringsjön). Nicolai Hermansen held similar roles. • The King's were lightly armed
cavalry units who fought in the rear and did the same tasks as the first category but on a day-to-day basis. Specialists like Pieter Sten would organize the into companies or assign volunteers to companies and constitute a link between the and the Danish authorities. Their role verged between that of paramilitary and auxiliaries in that they were paid by the state, worked on the orders of the
Danish military headquarters. They were sent over to lodgings in
Denmark proper, similar to regular soldiers when the campaign season was over. units were often set up on a regional basis so that all volunteers from one
hundred () signed up for the same company, but as the war continued, the companies shifted shape many times. There were at least two student companies, with recruits from the universities of
Copenhagen and
Lund. Some units were mainly for soldiers and veterans from both the Danish and Swedish armies. The vast majority of were
Scanian, but there was also a mix of
Danes,
Germans,
Poles, and
Swedes. These cavalry units of 40–100 operated over large areas. Their main task was to attack the Swedish army's supply lines, although all of the functions listed for category 1 were valid for them as well. They also worked with highly specialized units of
Croat cavalry hired by the Danish king. Major General Meerheim in the regular
Danish army was ultimately responsible for the operations. • Ordinary peasants and
yeoman farmers who continued their day-to-day lives but took up arms against approaching
Swedish forces when necessary; this category was most common in the initial stages of a war but continued throughout. These combatants were similar to modern partisans or
guerrillas. • Another group of snapphanar were Danish
bailiffs (), who supervised Danish tax collection and
foraging and often clashed with Swedish troops with the same intentions. Often these four groups collaborated and contributed to various Danish war operations, and most often, they were controlled from
Copenhagen. • A final category of was
bandits,
looters, and
carpetbaggers who roamed the land and had little to do with either warring party. Their looting was directed at the
Swedish army and, to a greater extent, the civilian population. The sources show that there were criminals on both sides who exploited the local population. These five categories of the fighter were all considered by the
Swedes, and if caught, were all punished as such. However, these combatants themselves did not use this term, and those in Category 2 and 3 strongly preferred the word . ==Strategic background==