Gaming Waterloo 200: a conundrum!

I was speaking last week to a couple of friends, and it turns out that they are interested in doing a 200th Anniversary refight of Waterloo. They are not hardcore gamers, and I will not have the time or finances to get figures painted, so my tentative plan is to cobble together some rules, make up a gameboard myself, and populate it with wooden counters of the 60mm-by-30mm, 100-yen-store-hardware-section variety.

The game needs to be able to accommodate 4 to 6 players, be played to completion in 2 to 3 hours, and give a reasonable feel for the historical battle. It would also be good if it were portable and durable, as it might make a nice change to play at a local drinking establishment rather than at my place.

My first thought was to use the Neil Thomas One-Hour Wargames rules, but as they require quite a bit of book keeping for casualties, twenty or so units a side might start to get a bit unwieldy.

Another option would be to adapt the Lost Battles fresh/spent concept and pull together rules of a more abstract nature, but the danger with abstraction of course is that it may not be quite so appealing to newer players.

A third option would be to use a simple boardgame and blow up the gameboard to the right size to fit with the wooden blocks.

Anyway, plenty to think about...