If you are wanting to get this sort of mix and match animation in-game however that's a code thing, not about something in 3ds max.
No, that's just my point. I know it can be a code thing, but it's a pointless overhead to do it in realtime when I only need it for a handful of animations. If it can be done in code, it can be done in a modeller.
Don't know what it's called in Max but in Blender it's the NLA (Non Linear Animation) Editor where you can merge different animations exactly as you describe. Maybe google for that and see what Max comes up with.
Non linear animation, eh? Well when I google that for 3dsMax I seem to be getting a lot of hits mentioning Motion Flow and Motion Mixer. There's not much information, just those features, so I think I'll have a play with Max and see if either of them looks like it can do what I want.
Yeah, it's a shame I'm not using Blitz3D or I could just use Blender for these animations and be done with it. But I have to export to TVA at the end of it, so I have to stick with Max.