France’s highest-profile board game prize, the As d’Or, has unveiled Paolo Mori and Alessandro Zucchini’s Toy Battle as the winner of its main award for 2026.
The family weight, toy-themed wargame fought off competition from Flip 7 and Rebirth to scoop this year’s prize, while Stefan Feld design Civolution won out against Arcs and Ants to win the expert game award.
Zenith, from Grégory Grard and Mathieu Roussel, picked up the intermediate award ahead of First Rat and Take Time, while the children’s category was won by Florian Sirieix design Mooki Island in a contest with Archeo and The Twisted Spooky Night.
This year’s As d’Or saw a significant change to its rules, with organisers requiring entries to name artists on the game boxes for first time.
Paul Mafayon was the artist for Toy Battle, while Civolution was illustrated by Dennis Lohausen, Zenith by Xavier Gueniffey Durin and Mooki Island by Mélanie Bardin, also known as Seppyo.
The award, which traces its history back to 1988, has required entries to show designer names on their game boxes for several years, in addition to requirements for the game to be published in French and available in the French market during the preceding year.
A statement from Philippe Mouret and Julia Marcelin, both heads of studio at Toy Battle publisher Asmodee, said “Tonight’s recognition first belongs to the authors and illustrator whose talent and vision brought Toy Battle to life.
“We also want to thank all the teams involved for their dedication, as well as the Festival’s jury for this distinction. This award is a wonderful acknowledgment of the creativity and vitality of today’s tabletop industry.”
French board game website Ludovox noted in January that a long-held belief around the As d’Or was that two-player games could not be nominated – a premise which crumbled this year with the nomination of three such games.
It added, “It also reflects the current trend: playing games as a couple, and smaller-format games are appealing to the public, and publishers are offering more and more of them.”
Viking-themed card shedding game Odin won last year’s As d’Or, while city-building eurogame Kutná Hora triumphed in the Expert Game category at the 2025 awards, Operation Noisettes won the children’s game prize, and Behind scooped the “Initié” award – which targets regular board game players ready for more challenging mechanisms.
The As d’Or was launched 38 years ago to highlight the best games available at France’s Festival International des Jeux in Cannes. The award was merged with the Jeu de l’Année in 2005.
More than 100,000 people attended this year’s FIJ between February 25 and March 1, down on the record 110,000 admissions across the five-day event last year.
The 2026 As d’Or Awards
As d’Or
Winner: Toy Battle, designed by Alessandro Zucchini and Paolo Mori, published by Repos (Asmodee)
Flip 7, Eric Olsen – Catch Up Games
Rebirth, Reiner Knizia – Lucky Duck Games and Mighty Boards
As d’Or-Jeu de l’Année – Enfant / Children
Winner: Mooki Island, Florian Sirieix – Le Scorpion Masqué
Archeo, Thomas Favrelière, Adrien Pédron – Gigamic
The Twisted Spooky Night, Wolfgang Dirscherl, Wolfgang Lehmann – Drei Magier Spiele
As d’Or-Jeu de l’Année – Initié / Intermediate
Winner: Zenith, Grégory Grard, Mathieu Roussel – PlayPunk
First Rat, Gabriele Ausiello, Virginio Gigli – Pegasus Spiele
Take Time Alexi Piovesan, Julien Prothière – Libellud
As d’Or-Jeu de l’Année – Expert / Expert Game
The supreme discipline for all strategists and frequent players.
Winner: Civolution, Stefan Feld – Grail Games, Deep Print Games
Arcs, Cole Wehrle – Leder Games
Ants, Renato Ciervo, Andrea Robbiani – Cranio Creations and Intrafin
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