fired up my old armory and, of course, it acked on the new DB format
It isn't the new database format. Armory does not use Bitcoin Core's databases. Please do not assume that the one thing you know changed is what breaks the software.
The reason your old Armory is failing is because segwit changes the block format, and old versions of Armory do not understand the segwit block format.
Upgrading to Armory 0.96.2 and deleting the databases folder in Armory's datadir should fix your problem.
Also, post your log files.