So I'm planning on playing my first Epic match this weekend, and wanted to clarify exactly the starting energy of the ship and it's weapons. The section from the rules is this:

Players assign Energy tokens to each of their Huge ships and their

equipped secondary weapons up to their respective energy limits

So am I to assume that each hardpoint is fully charged as well as the ships max energy if full before you make your first move?

So my real question is, due to discarding any excess energy above your energy cap, when you gain energy while moving on the first turn, that energy gets discarded straight away?

Or have I misread the rules entirely?

You're reading the rules correctly: you start with full energy on your ship and its secondary weapons (although non-weapon upgrades like the Ionization Reactor do not get energy). Because there's no spare capacity to store your first turn's energy generation, that energy will be discarded.

Great thanks for the clarification, full speed ahead first turn it is then!

Great thanks for the clarification, full speed ahead first turn it is then!

I hope we're going to see some pics of this one.

Great thanks for the clarification, full speed ahead first turn it is then!

I hope we're going to see some pics of this one.

You can count on it, though I did take a photo or 2 at our last tournament that came out quite well, a good DSLR with a sweet Macro lens can net some great shots:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B2g9bt-P12GUZHUySVoxQzlEbkk&usp=sharing