Improved general's bodyguard? Not working?

[Dorkus]

No that's the same as the marius reforms.

The Imp Pal description says that it provides improved general's bodyguards, but it does not seem to do so. I've tried combo circus/imp pal, and I've tried moving the capital to the city with imp pal and/or circ max, but still all the generals ahve the same old stats.

For what it's worth I should add that retraining does nothing. (or actually, is not even possible unless there are other upgrade, e.g. blacksmith, that the general unit is missing)

edit2: come to think of it, does retraining generals work? i recall retraining generals on a number of occasions, but I don't recall ever seeing armor or weapon upgrades on them.