The topic of "Pretenders in the Arena" raises its head again. This time, how about finding an answer for this question:
What is the greatest number of Pretenders you have seen in one Arena competition?
My record is
three.
I was playing Arcoscephale in an 11-nation game on the World Map (can't really recommend random play on that map--4 of the 11 land powers started on islands and never left them, so it wasn't that much of a game). However:
It was a real dogfight in the Arena: Jotun sent a Great Wyrm, T’ien Ch’i sent a Golden Naga, and Pangaea sent a Black Bull.
The Bull and Naga met first. The Bull won, but lost half its hit points and took two afflictions. The Wyrm cleaned it up rather handily after that. The other seven nations sent mostly junk, but there might have been a Prophet or two in the mix.
I, of course, stayed away, kept my head down, and killed their nations.