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Maybe you could be interested in this one:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Tactica%20Penal%20Legions

It is a try from me to sum up the capabilities of this unit (I play them almost since the codex came out)

Actually I found penal legions more efficient than blob infantry most of the time. (Hard statement maybe but I never missed blobs nor did I fear them...)

How to use them is the key to get them heroic.

They have a big problem. They need many other supporting units in order to be effective. Which are:

Astropath -> CCS (Standard)
Storm troopers with meltaguns
long range support
more penal legions
faster scoring units already on the board

Their biggest advantage is, that the opponent does not know where the legion/s strike at the start of the game. So the legion player decides when to strike where and what.
And he can decide NOT to strike at all. This is very important.
If he has the choice, legions shouldnt fight at all, they should march. And if they fight, put 3 units of them at one target complementing each other and you will find them more effective than blob infantry.

Their advantage is they are stubborn MSU with first strike.

If you add points, you will see that a usefully equipped 30 man blob (commissar, 4 powerweapons 3 meltaguns) will be a small bit more expensive than 3 penal legions. Rather equal. But with 3 penal legions you do more than with a 30 man blob. You outshoot them with gunslingers (mobile 2 shots 24" is better than immobile frfsrf, you kill them in assault using all 3 of them or decide to tarpit them with 1 unit scoring with 2 others or you ignore them. And most important: The penal legions decide what they do, the blob reacts)

Still they have to be protected from rapid fire and flamers. Long range is not dangerous in the current metagame. So you need flanking melta chimeras to fill their anti vehicle lack and to have a shield. (storm troopers) and you need reliability in your flanking manoeuvering. (astropath) and morale for defending legions (standard).

So: Yes you have to build an army around them to be effective and you have to be experienced with them.

I recommend 3 of them together with 1-2 units of mechvets 1 CCS and 1-2 units storm troopers for a sneaky and highly versatile backbone and some selective big guns for the big damage. The rest is personal gusto.

Be careful with dicussions about units that bring in player skill. There are units that become better in the hands of skilled players (melta vets are a good example), and then there are units that a good enough player can simply win despite having.

To be honest: A good player can win with almost everything. I have seen a player getting top 5 with a store army and I have seen players lose mercylessly with top tier armies against rather decent opposing armies due to not understanding their army.

But there is a performance curve for every unit. There are units that increase their performance proportionally to the players skill.
And there are units that increase their performance exponentially compared to the players skill level.
And there are units that dont increase their performance significantly skilled player or not.

Example for 1: Almost every unit (a CSM unit with bolt pistols and chainswords and bolters and krak and frag grenades can be very deadly and a melta vet unit can perform very badly depending on the players skill)
Example for 2: penal legions (they can be weak guardsmen but they can also be a steamroller. It depends on the player.)
Example for 3: Manticore? (He stops getting more dangerous as soon as the player discovers he can fire directly and he can fire indirectly at the side armour with LOS without scattering disadvantage)

They are LD8 which is actually the only downside of them.

The most important thing to keep in mind with these guys is diminishing returns. The first squad of them is the most likely to be used in the best possible way, the 2nd less than the first, the 3rd less than the 2nd, and so on....

I would argue to the contrary.

If all 3 kinds work together they are most devastating. 1 legion is nothing to worry about, 30 angry stubborn guys are hard to stop. (Their advantage over regular blob infantry is the possibility to choose whether to act together or separated and the ability to outflank. otherwise they work the same and (if you do the math) they are not less powerful if they need to act)

so we have the same situation as with blobs. 10 men are nothing, 30 are very annoying.

@ElCheezus

Their best use is harassment or scoring, no matter the die roll. You just have to be prepared to play them different ways.

QFT especially the last part sums it all up.

Although I'll go on the record as lamenting the "Gunsligners" roll. Last game I played I really could have benefited them coming on and taking out a vehicle, but both rolled for Assault 2 lasguns. With S3 and no grenades at all, they can only do that if they get either rending or FC. They ended up getting used for scoring, so they weren't useless by any means, but man they really need frag grenades sometimes. That 240 point Pask Vanquisher w/ Plasma Sponsons and HK was a juicy target. .

Personnally I like psychos the least. The problem is with ini 4 they suffer most from the lack of grenades and they need their charge and this charge must be decisive. Against vehicles they dont do enough damage, they can only glance so you just win a turn with a not moving enemy vehicle but you are vulnerable to countercharges against a valuable scoring unit.

I love a screen of gunslingers. They are able to keep pace if advancing or retreating and still pour constant lasgun fire into the enemy out of a safe distance. If they get decimated you can still fall back behind your tanks and use them to score.

I'd actually think that penal legionnaires would do well as a support unit to other outflankers.

Or the other way round But, yes penal legions without support are far less powerful than with a good chimera shield that gets you the melta you desperately need to attack anything (storm troopers).
This is the advantage a blob has, he brings his meltaguns (if the enemy is arrogant or foolish enough to place any unit within 12" of the short edge).

That's why I like al'rahem. BiD with meltaguns has killed probably at least half of my vehicles.

Yes Al'Rahem has also some funny potential. Meltaing and then retreating out of counterdistance for example with his special order. But what I dont like about him is, that his platoon MUST outflank. This narrows his role, and for some reason I dont like platoon infantry (but that is personal ).
And I am not perfectly sure that his whole platoon is rolled for together concerning the side they arrive. (Rolling for reserves of course, but the roll where they arrive is after rolling for reserves and it is made unit per unit) If they reliably walk in at the same edge they are quite nice. If not, they are not so useful.
And I fear its the second.

I was shaking between Al Rahem and Penal Legions. I took Penal Legions for style reasons and today I dont want to miss them. Their dirty work is too essential and I love their strategic flexibility. Although I dont think they are better than Al'Rahems flanking force. I would estimate about the same performance.
And I am desperate enough to play even footguard without platoon infantry (well they get points problems if it gets to higher numbers though and they get little armoured support, but no chimeras... )