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An Infantry Platoon made up of between 3-5 Infantry squads joined into one mass platoon with 1-5 Commisars armed with power weapons foot slogging across the field. The only games I've really used them against have been Space Marines, Orks, and Chaos Space Marines where they generally did better than I expected but I blame it on my opponent's target priority. For the most part I use them as a cheap meatshield for my more valuable units such as my heavy weapon teams, command squads, or my heavy armor but they also made a surprisingly effective counter assault element. The commisars were pushed to the front of the charge so they could direct their power weapons against the enemy. Generally the guardsmen are formed into staggered line formation 2 deep. While this means usually the entire blob cannot make the charge I found that with carefull premovement I could prepare for the attack. Most of the time I'd wait until the enemy closed into 12 inch distance then I would advance my line towards them to charge first and deny the enemy the charge bonuses. While the amount of casualties I sustained were horrible but generally they would inflict enough casualties back to justify their lives. 10 guardsmen slaughtered to knock out 1-2 termies, a nob, or a few space marines. More tha anything the unit would tie up a high value hand to hand unit or dedicated anti-tank units aiming for my armored support. Generally my gun lines of guardsmen even with heavy weapon teams are less than impressive as far as the damage they do but in this configuration they seem have more impact in a game other than simply holding objectives and being sacrifical lambs to more valuable units. I've also considered the use of a priest to the group since that would help them in their first round of combat. I'm just wondering if this configuration is a viable use of them or if I'm simply wasting imperial lives.

This is most definately are strategy all ready being extensively used by guard players. They are called "power blobs" and usually feature a commissar or two, sergeants with power weapons, and sometimes a meltagun and meltabombs. Essentially you march up the field and charge a unit you want tarpited for a while. The guardsmen are just a delivery system for all the power weapons in the blob.

I have just recently begun experimenting with this. 50 men seems like too many. 30 is closer to the most efficient unit size. But don't worry about their lives, they are all loyal servants to the Emperor. They should be happy to die in his service.

A lord comissar with a camo cloak will give the ENTIRE unit the stealth USR, and with it a 3+ cover save. Rerollable stubborn ld10 with a 3++ against most shooting is absurd.

As mentioned, you're a couple of years late to this party. On the plus side, power blobs are awesome. Just give those sergeants the same shiny swords as the commissar, and perhaps throw in a couple of meltaguns or lascannons (I've also done it with priests for the rerolls, and very occasionally straken for furious charge), and you've got a unit that grinds down most units in close combat through pure attrition. I can give you a couple examples of just what they're capable of here and here.

Thanks for the info. Yeah... I know I tend to be a bit behind the trends but there tend to be large gaps between my playtimes unfortunately. I was using the 4th Edition IG Codex then deployed... came back to a new one and got to fool around a bit... deployed again for another year... came back a couple of months where I tried to learn about the new armies using tried and true lists rather than experimenting, transfered units, and deployed again where I now sit in Afghanistan and wonder about rules and questions like this during idle moments of boredom. Hopefully after this one I'll be ETSed and able to relax a bit and try actually becoming an experienced player. Thanks for the advice though.

Good luck over there. Come back safe so you can game!