I had to ponder on this one for a while. My main/only force are Dwarves. (slowly branching out: Blue Wizards and Easterlings) I am going to drop the word "fluff" for I find that it lessens our stance on certain Rules. For a "fluff" is known to be just...something of no consequence.
With that being said I have always played the Ballista as needing to have 3 dwarves to move it at full movement, per the ORB on siege weapons.
....BUT....
I may have been swayed to side with your Dwarven friend. With the new sourcebooks things seem to be changing. Sadly once again GW are a bunch of drones beholden to multiprojects/deadlines/and other whatnots commonly associated with mega corps out for profit...oh wait..........
Personal feelings aside and here is the meat of my answer. If we are to hold that the Spider Queen of Mordor is in fact The Spider Queen of old (being a Named Hero and unable to field multiples in a Mordor WarHost) due to the Description and not the wording in the special abilities or the lack of a black-n-white definition. Then by that very fact, the Dwarven Ballista is NOW able to be moved at full movement with ONLY 2 crew. Can't pick and chose, its for all or none.
Why? Looking back at the old soucrebook Khazad-dum and comparing it to the Free People I noticed that the Description has completely changed. In the Free People they have actually added in writing that "two crew can carry it through narrow passageways and easily assemble it without hindrance,"[FPpg37] in the description. They have actually added more description than the old version. Nobody should go being a jerk and say "Fine...as long as your dwarves are running through a tunnel, then 2 can carry it; otherwise its 3."
Is that enough to change the old mindset? Probably not.
Well, at least till GW gets around to doing a FAQ.
I recently had to endure someone that I discovered uses the vagueness of GW to their favor, also I had to hand hold someone throughout a SBG that only has ever played Warhammer. They almost had a nervous breakdown due to the fact that in SBG there are vague rules and there are to few "RAW" without ambiguity. Would be nice if GW would devout that much attention to the SBG system.
Bottom line, again, its personal choice. The weapon is still Move-or-Fire and 8pts used for another crew can be useful...but more than likely its not. If you are starving for players, then whats the harm in doing 1 game as you see it and the next as they see it? Or a roll off? Course this is all mote if one concedes in favor of the other.
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