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Aside from the obvious Ultramarines, who else was involved in the first war against the Tyranids, I'm building a Killteam of Tyrannic war veterans and somewhere in the back of mind I recall the Lamenters and the Scythes of the Emperor fought and got their chapters hammered by the Nids but other than that I'm drawing a blank.

Genesis Chapter probably fought them. They are kind of like the British Empire Troops if the Ultramarines were The British. Their often just slotted into Ultramarine formations and in the historical records they're just sort of lumped in under "The Ultramarines".

Death Shadows, a renegade chapter at Sybari on the way to Ultramar. Really I don't think there was much of a chance for any other chapter to have fought them.

Basically the Death Shadows were fighting the Ultras at the time and retreated to recover on Sybari, then the tendril appeared and they aren't mentioned again. Does at least leave a little window for chaos tyrannic vets.

 n0t_u wrote:
Death Shadows, a renegade chapter at Sybari on the way to Ultramar. Really I don't think there was much of a chance for any other chapter to have fought them.

Basically the Death Shadows were fighting the Ultras at the time and retreated to recover on Sybari, then the tendril appeared and they aren't mentioned again. Does at least leave a little window for chaos tyrannic vets.

If you are going with Deathwatch, they might make some good Blacksheilds. After the rest of their chapter gets nommed, they realize that the hypocrisy and oppression of the IoM is better then being snack food. Turn back towards the light.

I read up on them, they were known as the Lionguard while loyalist. Given the name and the robes they're shown with I'm going to assume they're a Dark Angels successor.

Pretty much any chapter based in the South East of Ultima Segmentum. would have answered the call. This map gives a good visual of the area http://media.moddb.com/images/groups/1/3/2055/40kmap.jpg

Despite the rivalries and grudges. An attack like that on any of the 1st founding chapters would have prompted a united response. Part out of loyalty to a first founding chapter, partly because of the symbol they represent.

Also being a large stock of the geneseed currently in use comes from the Ultramarines there would have been chapters further afield who would have made haste as well.

Even if such chapters couldn't send a large force due to being engaged in other conflicts, they most likely would have sent at least one squad as a token representative.

Behemoth was fought solely by the Ultramarines, the Imperial navy and auxilias of guardsmen (mostly "locals" from the same system). The reason is that Tyranids had never been encountered before so no one thought of requesting additional astartes. Hell, the Tyranids went straight for Maccrage, one of the Imperiums most heavily defended locations. Astartes homeworld or no, the locations of a primarchs body will be heavily defended. They probably didn't think they'd need more forces then that had (which admittedly, turned out to be true at the cost of only one planet)

Kraken and Leviathan had a great deal of Astartes chapters involved in fighting them.

Ichar 4 was the first major engagement with the nids (unless retconned). It was a joint force of Eldar and Guard that fought the Nids (the Eldar and the IG were fighting each other when the Nids hit) A quick truce was formed and they fought together. It was after that they hit Ultramar.

It is quite possible that you are right and they didn't put out a call for help thinking their defences were strong enough, or though I would imagine a large number of chapters would have at least sent a token squad - Many space marine chapters would see an attack on a 1st Founding Chapter as an offence, despite any personal grudges - like I say, it would have been more of a token gesture, telling the enemies of man that the space marines stand united. Oddly enough, the chapters least likely to send troops would be other first founding chapters.

As such, if you are looking specifically to have Tyranid Vets from the invasion of Ultamar, you would probably be looking at only one squad. Vets from the other fleets would certainly be possible though, and in larger numbers. You may also want to consider that chapters will have marines who have served for a time as death watch and since returned to their chapter, its quite possible their time in the Death Watch was spent fighting the nids and should the chapter have to face nids again, these members formed into a squad for the duration of the conflict.

icn1982 wrote:
Ichar 4 was the first major engagement with the nids (unless retconned). It was a joint force of Eldar and Guard that fought the Nids (the Eldar and the IG were fighting each other when the Nids hit) A quick truce was formed and they fought together. It was after that they hit Ultramar.

Wrong. Ichar 4 was the scene of the second tyrranic war (involving hive fleet kraken, over 100 years after the first event), not the first. That's 4th ed fluff. The Eldar involved where craftworld Lyandel.

No other chapters were present up to and including the battle of Macragge, but it took years to cleanse Ultramar of the various splinters of the shattered fleet. The Blood Angels sent a force to help with the mopping up and I imagine most of the local chapters did too.