It's about taste but I like the Bicorne & Renegade combo.
This.
I tried very hard to love the Empress figures. They are very different in style to anything else out there, and quite exquisite. But I'm afraid I just couldn't get on with painting them. The surface detail is so shallow as to be almost non-existent. Didn't suit me anyway. But definite contenders when it comes to beautiful characterisation.
Mind you, Nick Collier's vast ranges for Bicorne and Renegade are also wonderfully characterful and evocative of the period - just stylistically different.
This question (which ECW / TYW range + compatibility) gets asked so often, we really ought to have a sticky on it... I shall apply myself to that at some point...