Seeing that my last merged movement animation worked (Walkforward, walkfastforward,dodgeforward), I decided to expand it with a walkleft animation. It appears the Max nif exporter (at least the version from Figment) doesn't like to export animations that are not straight forward movement animations. Either that, or I'm doing some stupid newby thing. Despite me entering the appropriate movement text movement keys, the walkleft animation "snaps" back to the last Bip01 position. I've spent most of the day fooling around with different combinations.
Importing the .kf into Blender shows the Bip01 bone being left behind, but right now am unsure about how to fix this.
It would be nice to get this to work, as I'd be able to use and reuse animations in different environments (inside a dungeon, or on a hill) and be a little closer to composing my own fight sequences.
EDIT: Good news is, I think I found a workaround without having to use BLENDER.
Bad news: I have to go to sleep now and I need to stop being giddy over this discovery so I can be up in time for work in the morning.. :(