So, I'm new to Epic Ships and want to make sure I get this right.

First: When an epic game begins, a ship begins with the max amount of energy it can have, yes? So a Raider with 3 Quad Laser Cannons would have 12 total energy? (6 from the Aft section of the ship, and 2 in each of the Quad Lasers?)

Then, if the Aft section gets 'destroyed' it provides blocking line-of-sight to anything behind the Fore section, effectively shielding it completely?

And lastly, if the Aft section has been destroyed, the Fore section can only store up to 2 energy, stored in the Quad Laser Cannon equipped up front?

1. Yes, that's correct. However, note that in FFG's scenarios, it's intended that huge ships don't start with any energy unless the scenario description specifically says otherwise. Also, only hardpoint upgrades begin the game with energy up to their capacity. Any other upgrades that have an energy capacity, such as Ionization Reactor, begin the game empty.

2. Yes, crippled sections can block line of sight to the intact section. Since crippled sections can't be targeted, this can prevent enemies from firing at the huge ship entirely.

3. No, that's not quite right. Remember that when a section of a two-card huge ship is crippled, you flip the card for that section to its crippled side. The crippled side of the Raider's aft card shows an energy capacity of 1. That means that the most energy the Raider can hold in reserve is 1, and since huge ships can never exceed their capacity, the most it can gain each turn is 1 energy.

So the crippled Raider you describe can hold a maximum of 3 energy: 1 on the Raider itself, and 2 on the Quad Laser Cannon on the fore.

Keep in mind that energy on upgrade cards comes from the energy on the ship. If you generate energy but you already have max energy on your aft ship card you can't just put the excess on your laser cannons. If the crippled aft only has a capacity of 1 then when you move you only get 1 energy, then you can move that 1 energy to the laser cannons so that they have 1 energy and the aft has zero.

Be aware that the fore section cannot "store" energy. You can allocate energy that is stored in the aft section during the energy allocation phase to upgrade cards that use energy.

Once the aft section is crippled, the aft section can store only one energy. Even if you do a 1 straight that would normally give you 3 energy, you can only store one of it when the aft section is crippled. That means you can allocate energy one at a time in order to recharge the quads in the fore section. So it will take two rounds to recharge them completely.

As per the tournament rules, at the game start you only put energy to the aft section and weapons, but not on other cards like the Ionization Reactor.

For cinematic mission you start with no energy.

They are Huge ships, not Epic ships.