I was playing A Knife in the Dark last night with a Hobbit deck, which included Leadership Sam Gamgee, whose ability reads:

Quote

Response: After you engage an enemy with a higher engagement cost than your threat, ready Sam Gamgee. He gets +1[all stats] until the end of the round.

Normally I would quest with Sam, but in this case I was trying to avoid Bill Ferny's forced ability, and so where possible I was only questing with Frodo and allies.

So my question is: if I optionally engage an enemy (with engagement cost higher than my threat) while Sam is ready, does he still gain the stat boost?

I don't think it really mattered while I was playing last night as I had plenty of options for dealing the engaged enemies, but would like clarification, just in case it comes up again.

Yes, you still get the boost even if Sam is ready.

[source is the FAQ, reproduced here: http://www.lotr-lcg-quest-companion.gamersdungeon.net/#Card914 ]

Thanks for that! I Googled for a solution and couldn't find anything. I forgot all about the FAQ! 🙄