Hey peeps,

After a little bit of searching on https://gamedev.stackexchange.com I found a mention to Finite State Machines (FSM) and it clicked immediately!!!

DUH!! Of course that's what I want. Why didn't it occurred to me initially is still a mystery

Now to learn a bit more in depth on the subject and then onto implementation.

Many thanks to all that gave me an answer.

Cheers,
Gus