How to create a large array of interlinked simulink blocks

I want to simulate a large (~1000) number of interlinked cells (behavior of one influences behavior of it's neighbor, etc.). The behavior of each cell is time dependent (i.e. one cell is triggered by it's neighbor, but doesn't respond to the next cell over for some time t1 and is not able to be triggered again for some other time t2, etc.). Because of the asynchronous nature of this, I was thinking of event driven simulation. How can I go about creating something like this? I can't imagine actually graphically wiring up 1000-ish cells. Any ideas?

Much appreciated.

Thanks, Rob

[A Jenkins]

You can programmatically write Simulink models (they are text files underneath afterall), but I'm not sure you really want to.

You might be better off writing it in MATLAB to begin with, or even using a program more suited to this type or programming, such as NetLogo.